Criminal Cluelessness Regarding Afghanistan

(Cartoon by Graeme Mackay-click toon for link)

Our western socialists and liberals constantly whine about how cold hearted and mean-spirited conservatives are towards those less fortunate than us. Whether it were peace, prosperity, or the pursuit of happiness, they like all spiritual communists, would much rather enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labour than pay the price themselves.

So now we come to the war on terror, and more specifically, the Canadian Army’s contribution to the rebuilding of Afghanistan. Until recently, stories about Canadian casualties in the war on the Taliban have occupied an increasing amount of space in Canada’s news services. I’d become increasingly cynical about the way the media deliberately ignored that part of the Canadian mission that had to do with the rebuilding of that country. Barely a word appears about the reestablishment of schools, medical services, water treatment and other infrastructure that couldn’t survive more than a decade of destructive Taliban rule. I’ve met an appalling number of people here who are so poorly informed that they think we’re in Afghanistan to help George W. Bush get rich.

The clueless ones would have us bring the troops home. I live in Western Canada; Quebec’s separatists have had little or no impact on my awareness for most of my life. (As long as Alberta continues to pay the lion’s share of the daneguild that keeps Quebec in confederation they’re mostly willing to ignore us too, I think.) But separatist leader Gilles Duceppe’s recent pronouncements that the Canadian military mission should be retooled to concentrate solely on rebuilding instead of fighting shows a cluelessness that is criminal in a Member of Parliament.

NDP leader Jack Layton is another prime example. To hell with rebuilding; he just wants Canada to abandon the Afghanis to the Taliban, and bring our soldiers home. I’m sure he’s a good man, means well, and works hard. Unfortunately Jack Layton would not be able to get a clue even if he went out in a field of horny clues during clue mating season, smeared his naked body with clue musk, and danced the ritual clue mating dance.

(I really wish I’d said that first, but I stole it from author Ian Douglas, “Luna Marine” ISBN 0-380-78829-2)

Canada’s Chief of Defense staff General Rick Hillier pointed out today that Canadian forces in Afghanistan aren’t fighting Taliban forces because they want to, but because the Taliban will happily slaughter anyone involved in reconstruction projects.

Is it possible to sit in Parliament as a Party Leader and be ignorant of this? Over the years I’ve met quite a few politicians. Not one seemed to be willfully ignorant or stupid. It takes a certain minimum amount of intelligence to get elected to Federal office. I can therefore only conclude that if I'm wrong, and Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton are not clueless idiots, they're a couple of like-minded assholes in the pursuit of their own political gain. Either way, the cost will be borne by others …Either in the endangerment of our soldiers by ordering them to ignore security concerns, or by the suffering in a new Taliban-led Afghanistan after we abandon our international commitments.

It should be criminal.

The Night Before Christmas - A Soldier's Request

T'was the night before Christmas,
He lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house,
Made of plaster and stone.



I had come down the chimney,
With presents to give,
And to see just who,
In this home did live.



I looked all about,
A strange sight I did see,
No tinsel, no presents,
Not even a tree.



No stocking by the mantle,
Just boots filled with sand,
On the wall hung pictures,
Of far distant lands.



With medals and badges,
Awards of all kinds,
A sober thought,
Came through my mind.



For this house was different,
It was dark and dreary,
I found the home of a soldier,
Once I could see clearly.



The soldier lay sleeping,
Silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor,
In this one bedroom home.



The face was so gentle,
The room in such disorder,
Not how I pictured,
A Canadian soldier.



Was this the hero,
Of whom I'd just read?,
Curled up on a poncho,
The floor for a bed?



I realized the families,
That I saw this night,
Owed their lives to these soldiers,
Who were willing to fight.



Soon round the world,
The children would play,
And grownups would celebrate,
A bright Christmas day.



They all enjoyed freedom,
Each month of the year,
Because of the soldiers,
Like the one lying here.



I couldn't help wonder,
How many lay alone,
On a cold Christmas eve,
In a land far from home.

The very thought brought,
A tear to my eye,
I dropped to my knees,
And started to cry.



The soldier awakened,
And I heard a rough voice,
"Santa, don't cry,
This life is my choice.

I fight for freedom,
I don't ask for more,
My life is my God,
My country, my corps."



The soldier rolled over,
And drifted to sleep,
I couldn't control it,
I continued to weep.



I kept watch for hours,
So silent and still,
And we both shivered,
From the cold night's chill.



I didn't want to leave,
On that cold, dark night,
This guardian of honour,
So willing to fight.



Then the soldier rolled over,
With a voice, soft and pure,
Whispered, "carry on Santa,
It's Christmas day, all is secure."



One look at my watch,
And I knew he was right,
"Merry Christmas my friend,
And to all a good night."
My good Friend Bill Lewchuck sent this to me, asking for me to pass it on. I never pass on chainletters and similar crap, no matter how "nice" the subject matter.
But Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our Canadian service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. I think people should stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

Photo Credit: MCpl Robert Bottrill / Department of National Defence

beware the identity phishers

I received an email last night that was supposedly from paypal. Oddly enough, it wasn't to my primary email account, but to an older account I had never used with paypal. But for that they might have got me. It's pretty slick looking, but it still had a flaw that gave it away. Here's the email the way it appeared in Thunderbird (click for larger view):



Note that moving the cursor arrow over the link makes the destination url appear at the bottom of the screen. The first part of the hidden url has a Portugese url suffix! I checked with paypal, they don't HAVE a paypal localized site in Portugal.

Had I fallen for their ruse, I'd have been directed to a fake paypal site, where I'd reveal my paypal password when I attempted to login. Here's a lesson, stricter Judges and longer prison sentences keep these dickwads off the stre- er, I mean, never ever goto paypal without typing in the url yourself!.

Here's a legitimate email from paypal. They didn't even use their own logo in this instance.

.

When I think of people stealing from me, I feel deep rumblings of rage, burried under a lifetime of self control and learned civilized behavior. If I were an uncivilized barbarian, I'd have their guts perforated with a rusty pitchfork.

f*ckers.

Canadians Try Smoking out Talibans hiding in Hemp Fields...

I've been following many of the unofficial accounts on the net of our Canadian troops in Afghanistan for a while now. It's amazing what doesn't get into the midstream media.

It Seems the Taliban's terrorists have taken to hiding in Afghanistan's lush 10- foot high Marijuanna fields. Seems that at this time of year they're quite green and ...FIREPROOF.
So the Canadian's do what seems obvious: they try to light the shit up and smoke out the enemy. General Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of Defense Staff admitted earlier this week that neither Diesel nor white phosphorus could do more than get a few brown plants on the edges smoking. Some of the soldiers downwind apparently suffered some "ill effects" and they had to give up on that particular course of action. (check this link for AFP photo)

Should have tried Napalm from B52s or something.(wav file)

-----------
note: Ok, so the comic doesn't quite fit the story, but I bought Terry Mosher's last Aislin treasury just for this one. No disrespect is intended towards the huge majority of CF Personel in Afghanistan who passed the drug tests with flying colors. The comic itself dates back to a 2004 issue of the Montreal Gazette.

YouTube gonna suck now? - Thanks for nuthin Google.

I don't know what was on the video that was pulled from youtube, and I suppose I'll never know now. I had hoped that Google wouldn't f*ckup a good thing when they took over youtube, but I guess that's expecting too much. I listened Friday to an radio interview about the takeover and apparently 60% of the material on youtube contained copywrited elements. Much of it allowed you to scan (what the poster thought was) some of the best moments on tv etc. without having to sit through a whole damned production.

It was quick, easy, and convenient.

No more. Keep watching dear reader, in the coming weeks that little red message will appear more and more often as the big corporate hacks and their bloodsucking lawyers begin squeezing out more and more of the stuff that made youtube interesting and fun to visit.

It's probable that youtube was set to make some money from having the heavy internet traffic their site generated. But the people who posted there, and the millions who enjoyed their clips weren't getting any.

This isn't a rant against copyrights. But rather against those small minded greedy lawyers and corporate types, and the unique way they inspire a grasping grubbing attitude that somewhere, someone might be enjoying something. ...and that they might possibly be forced to pay for it.

This one is worthy of OOK the Librarian.

As my blog entries go this is about as juvenile as it gets. I found this the other day at UserFriendly. Google search for PUBIC LIBRARY. I can't believe how many public libraries can't spell...

Darrell Anderson revisited

I was told today I was too hard on that Anderson dickhead. Too bad.

Oathbreaking deserter turns himself in

Lookit this asshole. Wears his dishonor on his shirt.
This is Darrell Anderson, who joined the U.S. military to get a college educashun. Then the war in Iraq started and he was wounded by by a roadside IED.
That convinced him to desert to Canada. I'd tell you to kick im in the nads if you meet him on a Canadian street, but he turned himself in today, after chickenshit authorities promised not to charge him.

Oh well. Good riddance. If he'd have stayed here in Canada the next Liberal Government probably would have made him Governer General.

Putting it in Perspective

Browsing "The People's Cube" when I found this bit of humor:

Read the article, there's also a fictional quote from a letter from a European monarch (who refused to come to Byzantium's aid) that also made me smile sadly:

"We must avoid everything that increases tension between people or religions," said the King of France in an open letter to Manuel II (cc the Ottoman Court). "Islam is a religion of peace, and there is a need to be on constant alert against marginal provocations that are meant to turn this issue into a global crisis."

It's funny because it rings true in a way that the Politically Correct could never recognize. The Pope points out the unreasonability of people who claim "I believe in God, therefore I plant car-bombs in public places," and Islam goes ape-shit.

I notice that this website had a link to a video they'd produced illustrating what they thought was the proper context for the Holy Father's statements. It's been pulled. I searched youtube for it, but it doesnt' come up anymore.

I think the People's cube is a great little website every soccer mom and university prof should visit. It's full of ideas, tips, and interesting dictionary entries like this one:

Hezbollization

(noun) A process whereby evil murderous thugs are turned into everyday heroes by an overzealous mainstream media. Hezbollize (verb) Assign great social importance to gangsters, treat them as celebrities (Hez-boll-ized, Hez-boll-iz-ing, Hez-boll-iz-es)
Example 1: "Cross burnings bring warmth and comfort to homes without central heating, as caring KKK activists distribute clean white clothing among impoverished kids."
Example 2: "Crips, Bloods, MS 13 organize daily after school programs, engage minotiry children in pharmacological economics and ballistics training."

My Hometown Edmonton Boys kick Taliban Ass

Thanks to fellow Edmontonian NastyBoy for finding this one.
Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon, Red Devils, from Edmonton, Canada conduct a dawn raid on a Taliban compound.




In case the link's broke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_S9P1kMNuM

You're not going to see video like this on that pansy CBC network. From Day One Canadians took part in the freeing, and then re-building of Afganistan. Except for a nasty willingness to emphasize our casualties, our midstream-media has ignored their efforts, content that they're doing their bit to undermine them.

Timing

My daughter forwarded this one to me:

A nun who worked with a home-care health agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it, a gasoline station was only a block away. But when she asked the attendant to loan her a jerry-can, he told her that someone else had already borrowed it,
and had not yet returned.
Since she was on her way to see a patient, she decided not to wait. Walking back, She dug through the medical supplies in her car, and returned to the filling station with a bedpan. She filled it with gasoline, and carefully walked back to her car.

A police car halted at the nearby traffic light just as the nun began to pour the gas from the bedpan into her car.

The driver turned to his partner and said, "If that car starts, I'm turning Catholic."

dishonest telemarketing?

Despite using their "free do-not-call" service the week prior to August 19th, I'm still getting phone calls from the telemarketing firm hired by Eddie Shack's Battle of the Badges. (no, I'm not linking to them)

When I answer, they hang up.

Having had no luck with me, they're obviously hoping to conn my wife or minor children into agreeing to a pledge.

-------------

Update: I called them back, and although there were at least 3 buttons to push for sales, service and info, their automated menu has no option for talking to a human about their bullshit do-not-call service. I eventually got through to a nice lady named Krista, who promised me it was all a mistake, and they wouldn't call again... for 3 years. lol.

Pervert Beaten by angry Mob

Every once in a while people do something that restores my faith in society. According to news reports from Dallas, Texas:

Brandon Scott Burke, 20, showed up Wednesday at an Oak Cliff apartment complex and was alleged to have shown a magazine with pictures of naked women to some of the children playing there, police said...

Someone saw this, called for help, and about 20 people jumped on Burke and soundly beat the shit out of him.

I say they deserve a medal.

Sadly, in Canada, they'd probably go to jail for assault.

A Bit of Wisdom

Loved this one. Someone should tell the democrats.

Allah Scews Osama over.

So, Osama may be dead of Typhoid? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Allah must really love this asshole, (not.)
Here's some symptoms of typhoid, courtesy of wrongdiagnoses.com.

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Typhoid fever includes those listed below. Note that Typhoid fever symptoms usually refers to various symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Typhoid fever signs may refer to those signs only noticable by a doctor:

• No symptoms - if only a mild exposure; some people become "carriers" of typhoid.
• Fever
• Headache
• Constipation
• Malaise
• Chills
• Sore throat
• Myalgia
• Mild vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Abdominal tenderness
• Transient skin rash (rose spots) - usually on abdomen or chest
• Abdominal rash
• Chest rash
• Loss of appetite
• Nosebleeds
• Joint pains
• Stepladder temperature - rise in temperature occuring in steps
• High fever
• Tongue changes
• Thirst
• Diarrhea
• Blood in diarrhea
• Slow heartbeat
• Splenomegaly
• Enlarged liver
• Liver symptoms
• Bradycardia
• Delirium
• Leukopenia
• Anemia
• Blood changes
• Proteinuria

When considering symptoms of Typhoid fever, it is also important to consider Typhoid fever as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that Typhoid fever may cause:

• Osteomyelitis
• Pyrexia of unknown origin
• Myocarditis
• Meningoencephalitis
• Gram negative bacilli / rods
• Typhoid fever
• Pyrexia of unknown origin
• Maculopapular rash
• Abdominal pain
• Gastrointestinal perforation
• Nausea and vomiting
• Reiter's syndrome
• Gallbladder empyema
• Epididymo-orchitis
• Toxic megacolon
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Diarrhoea
• Reactive arthropathy
• Acute confusional state
• Hepatocellular jaundice
• Pyrexia of unknown origin
• Maculopapular rash
• Abdominal pain
• Gastrointestinal perforation
• Nausea and vomiting
• Reiter's syndrome
• Gallbladder empyema
• Epididymo-orchitis
• Toxic megacolon
• Gastrointestinal bleeding
• Diarrhoea
• Reactive arthropathy
• Acute confusional state
• Hepatocellular jaundice

Pope says Muslim practice of spreading the faith by sword unreasonable - Muslims freak out

This is as predictable as a full moon.

Lecturing at his alma mater, the University at Regensburg, Pope Benedict XVI briefly talked about the unreasonableness of spreading the faith through violence. The subject was the need to reconcile faith with reason. As an aside, He quoted a very ancient debate between a Byzantine Emperor and an Educated Persian saying Mohammed's command to spread by the sword the faith he preached was evil and inhuman.

His holiness admitted the quote was startling in it's brusqueness, but went on to endorse fully the view that "spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable".

Predicably the Muslim world is going bug fucking nuts in response.

Roald Dahl's 90th Birthday

The British Isles are celebrating the 90th birthday of Roald Dahl, the children's author of the well known children's classics "BFG," "Willy Wonka," and "Matilda."


Less well known are his exploits as an aviator in 1941 with the RAF's 80 squadron in the Mediterranean. Hospitalized in Alexandria after cracking his skull in a crash in the Libyan desert, Dahl was left behind by his squadron which had moved on to reinforce Greece. Trained to fly the obsolete Gloster Gladiator bi-plane, he was given a brand new Hawker Hurricane and told to ferry it to his Squadron in Greece upon his recovery. With virtually no instruction on his new aircraft, he successfully rejoined his squadron at Elevsis, near Athens.
At Elevsis he discovered that while the invading German Luftwaffe had brought nearly a thousand combat aircraft, while the RAF had only 14 Hurricanes, and 4 Bristol Blenheims to defend Greece.
With about 7 hours in-type he went into combat the very next day and shot down a JU-88 while on solo patrol. Dahl managed to get two more kills before being grounded for medical reasons.

He recounts his war experiences in the autobiographical "Going Solo" which I discovered quite by accident a couple of years ago. I recommend it heartily.

Assimilation: The Right Attitude

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard has refused to apologize to Aussie muslims for saying they have to integrate into Australian Society.

Good on ya, Mate!

Speaking on a talk radio show yesterday, Howard told his audience that there's a small group of Muslim migrants who refuse to integrate, learn english, or adopt his country's values.

The usual suspects were outraged.

Today he told the media, "I don't apologize... And I have said, generally, all migrants ... they have to integrate, and that means speaking English as quickly as possible, it means embracing Australian values and it also means making sure that no matter what the culture of the country from which they come might have been, Australia requires women to be treated fairly and equally and in the same fashion as men.

"And if any migrants that come into this country have a different view, they better get rid of that view very quickly.

"I don't retreat in any way from that. It doesn't involve singling out a group."

Thank God at least some of the world's western leaders are willing to learn from France's mistakes.

Sign of the cross illegal?

In the early 1990s one of my best friends and his wife spent two years as nurses in Saudi Arabia. Vince Sanregret cautioned me not to send him any Christmas or Easter cards while they were in that Muslim country. It was the first time that I'd heard there were places where Christianity was illegal.

Last week we get news that a soccer player has been prosecuted for making the sign of the cross, which was supposedly insulting to the other team. But it wasn't in some muslim shithole.

It was in Scottland.

In a match last February, Artur Boruc, a Polish Roman Catholic goalie for the Glasgow Celtic, blessed himself with the sign of the cross. The mostly protestant fans of the the other team, the Rangers, apparently complained that they felt threatened.

What a bunch of pansies.

Thankfully people are protesting the Crown's Office's ridiculous decision, and officialdom was quick today to issue denials that wasn't actually the 'sign of the cross' they were cautioning the soccer player for, but rather "offensive gesticulations." From the furor, You'd think his gesticulations fell out of his underwear or something.

It's a symptom of how sick a society can become in the throws of moral relativistic multiculturalism, when it turns a blind eye to street violence and property crimes in favor of pursuing 'cultural crimes.'

The Scottsman.com called it right, when they said this will make Scottland a laughingstock.

heh heh. Liberals and Ann Coulter

I haven't looked at the Mallard Filmore strip for over a year because I have difficulty downloading them from the King's Features Syndicate website. But today I checked them out and just about split a gut.
Bruce Tinsley spears the liberal media establishment again, doing a pretty funny job in the case of pointing out the typical liberal blindspot they have towards all things economic.

vandalism

Our lovely little suburb has a drunken idiot problem. Early this morning one of those buttheads mistook our church's front door for a recycle bin or something.
The Mrs. and I live next door to our church, and look after the grounds. In the last couple of months the rotters stole our garden hose, broke a window in my sister's car, and dumped over full 8' trash bins behind the drugstore next door.

Y'know, in Singapore, which doesn't have a vandalism problem, they publicly beat people caught vandilizing stuff...

Wrzesnewskyj Resigns - unrepentant

Canadian Liberal opposition Member of Parliament Borys Wrzesnewskyj has resigned his critic's post after telling the media that Canada should change it's law that forbids negotiations with terrorists. Wrzesnewskyj met with Lebanese President and Hezbollah supporter Emile Lahoud earlier this week on a tour of the damaged areas of Southern Lebanon.

Seeing as Lahoud has now linked his government with Hezbollah, hopefully Canada will suspend aid and succor to them, as they've done to Hamas...

...and hopefully Wrzesneewskyj will be charged with breaking Canada's law forbidding contact with terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.

RAH Centennial

(Thanks Claire) This deserves some attention.

GM finally back to making a Cool Car

Ford and Chrysler have come out with new muscle over the last four years, attractive cars like the rejuvenate Mustang and Charger. Selling like hotcakes.
What did GM do? Went all wimpy at the turn of the Century in the late 90s killing Oldsmobile, the Pontiac Trans Am and the Camaro.



Well I'm happy to see GM announcing yesterday that they're bringing the Camaro back, and it looks like a muscle car should! Here's a link to Road & Track's video, and an article from Popular HotRodding, and finally, newchevroletcamaro.com .

Still not sure if I like it better than the incoming Challenger though...

stinkin liberals breaking the law -again

Canada has a law against meetings or negotiations with terrorist groups including Hezbollah. Earlier this week Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud unequivocably linked his government with Hezbollah while claiming victory over Israel. Call me dense, but that put Lahoud in Hezbollah's camp, doesn't it?

Today a group of three opposition Canadian MPs met with Lahoud while on a shit disturbing tour of southern Lebanon, and spokesman MPBorys Wrzesnewskyj told CBC News that despite what the law says, Canada shouldn't miss this opportunity to dialog with the terrorist side in the most recent installment of the Islam/Israeli war.



Ok, he didn't phrase it that way. He ignored the CBC reporter's question about the wisdom of disregarding the aforementioned law, and kept repeating his mantra that "we shouldn't miss this opportunity."
Canadian Press quoted him being a little clearer:

"I've said all along that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and will continue to be," Wrzesnewskyj said. "Where I have difficulty is with the legislation that says a group on the list cannot be communicated with."

In other words, he's opposed to the law which forbids contact/fund raising/negotiation with terrorist organizations. (This is a guy whose political party gave (not sold) gave the Soviets millions in aid through free grain shipments during the Trudeau years of the Cold War.)

Therein lies the crux of the Liberals problem with chosing sides in the battle between right & wrong / good & evil. They don't understand that terrorists and despots belong to that class of persons and organizations that must be Stamped Out. If we had been saddled with the curse of the "Early 21st century Liberal" during WWII, the Nazis would now be in power in Europe because of a negotiated series of cease-fires following D-Day.

Since Prime Minister Harper has come solidly down against Hezbollah in the recent conflict in the Holy Land, the opposition Liberals have been shitting themselves sideways trying to tell us that a governing Party has no business taking sides. Never mind that over the last decade they've always chosen to side with the despots, or at least come firmly down on the side of lukewarm ambiguity.

In Lebanon's President Lahoud's eye, Lebanon=Hezbollah. Ok, then stinking Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj and his buddies should be charged with breaking the law for meeting with a terrorist organization.

stinkin telephone fundraisers

For the past week we've been getting phone calls from a charity that uses telephone solicitation. They all invariably CLAIM that I've donated to them in the past. Many of them, I might have, once, at a charity dinner or something in 1985, or somewhere. But does this give them the right to continually pester me on the phone for the rest of my life?

Is it too much to expect them to respect my wishes, when I tell them not to call anymore? ...to expect compliance when I call their '1-800 do not call me anymore' self-registration lines?



Here's a perfect example. See the graphic above? Eddie Shack's Battle of the Badges? The assholes they hired to pes- uh, solicit funds over the telephone have been calling my house ALL THIS PAST #*$%#$% WEEK. After a week of screening their calls, I answered. I began to tell the guy that we chose our charities, and have chosen to NOT support those which use telephone solicitation. He hung up in my ear. I've registered with their 'do-not-call-anymore' line, but they've called back 5 times since, hoping someone else will answer, I think.

I acknowlege that many worthy charities have made the mercenary mistake of turning to paid professional fundraisers. I don't dispute the fundraiser's right to earn a living through their enterprise, but I ought to be able to phone and pester them repeatedly at THEIR homes too!

the Truth about Lebanon

Here's a big shocker (not!) Lebanese President Emile Lahoud has admitted on the Lebanese airwaves that his government supported Hezbollah in it's criminal rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and used the inclusive 'WE' in claiming they'd defeated the Israeli army.

Of course, that Hitler wannabe, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quick to congratulate his new fellow terrorist head-of-state, Lahoud.

You'll know them not only by their works, but by the company they keep...

Jim Baen 1943-2006

I have my favorite authors, musicians, and heroes; you don't often hear of a favorite publisher. I inherited my father's fascination in science fiction, and a survey of my bookshelves reveal an interest reaching back to my boyhood in the early 1970s. An amazing number of those titles after 1983 are Baen Books. David Drake, David Weber, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, and John Ringo are all Jim Baen discoveries. Jim was also a vocal supporter of the unencrypted ebook.

Jim Baen, publisher of Baen Books, and discoverer of some of my Favorite Authors, died of a stroke June 28th, 2006. I can't believe I just heard now. David Drake wrote his obituary here. If you are considering a memorial, please consider David's request.

I've only met the man through his taste for good stories... and I'm richer for it. Thank you Jim.

Finally, Profiling!

Earlier this summer in Canada, CSIS and the RCMP arrested over a dozen terrorists planning to blow up the Parilament buildings and seize control of broadcast facilities. Somehow officials managed to stumble through an hour-long press conference without saying "Islamic."
Later, a Seattle Muslim shoots and kills 6 people outside a Jewish centre, and the same official phenomenom occurs.

There is a Common thread amongst terrorist attacks of the recent past. Here's a list ( thanks Ann ) of those arrested by the British in the recent plot to blow up British passenger jets:

WHEELCHAIRS PLOT TO BLOW UP PLANES IN U.K.! - LIQUIDS BANNED FROM FLIGHTS. MUSLIM MEN STILL PERMITTED.
List of the Arrested:
Umir Hussain, 24, London E14
Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, London E17
Waheed Zaman, 22, London E17
Assan Abdullah Khan, 22, London E17
Waseem Kayani, 28, High Wycombe
Waheed Arafat Khan, 24, London E17
Cossor Ali, 24, London E17
Tayib Rauf, 21, Birmingham
Ibrahim Savant, 26, London E17
Osman Adam Khatib, 20, London E17
Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 36, Stoke Newington
Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, London E17
Shazad Khuram Ali, 27, High Wycombe
Tanvir Hussain, 24, London E10
Umar Islam, 28, (born Brian Young) High Wycombe
Assad Sarwar, 25, High Wycombe
Abdullah Ali, 26, London E17
Abdul Muneem Patel, 17, London E5
Nabeel Hussain, 21, Waltham Forest

Only liberals, idiots, and politicians can't see the common thread. There's not an Irish Catholic nor American Mormon among them. If it were not Islamic extremism, then where are Islam's defenders to decry these terrorist's smearing of 'the religion of peace' s good name? 911, Chechnya, Paris, Haifa; wherever Islamo-terrorists commit their crimes against us the varied spokespersons for the religion of peace are suspiciously silent... unless it's to criticize any attempts to stop them.

Yet our media and politicians are too chickenshit to admit it. Thankfully, the British have finally decided to get over the liberal stupidity of refusing to give greater attention to the demographics of those most likely to offend. Naturally, those peaceful cute and fuzzy bunnies are upset.

I have met, and know socially, followers of the Prophet who are good people, productive members of society. But their shuddering silence on this issue is not good.

Dixie Chickens come home to Roost

Time and again I see people ignore reality and insist on behaving as if things were they way they 'wished," rather than by the way they 'are.' The Marketing naifs in question, County Music's Dixie Chicks, have been forced to cancel 14 shows in their American tour because of weak ticket sales.
In 2003 the chicks managed to offend most of their core audience when singer Natalie Mainse told an audience that she was embarrased U.S. President Bush was from Texas. Since then they've come out vocally against the War on Terror in both their statements and songwriting.
While they were lauded in Liberal regions like California and New York they have suffered a backlash from their core audience, Country Music listeners. The Chicks have now replaced the cancled American dates with shows in Canada, whose heavily taxed-economy suffers from a much heavier burden of liberal believers than the United States.
Even here in Canada I haven't heard any of their new material on the radio despite obvious heavy promotion of their new CD.

An Indictment of the Canadian Legal System

Last week a convicted repeat-offender pedophile allegedly abducted two young boys in Manitoba, and allegedly led police on a two-day national manhunt, before being allegedly cornered in a Saskatchewan farmhouse. After an alleded standoff, the child molester gave himself up to Police... allegedly. Peter Whitmore, the named subject of a nation-wide manhunt, was caught redhanded by police hundreds of miles away from the scene of the crime WITH the abducted children, and his liar- er, his lawyer, is talking about making deals with the crown in exchange for pleading guilty.

That's an admission of guilt. Only the ACLU-types, defense attornies, or a retard couldn't see that.

Such is the stupidity of our system, that a criminal like this multiplely convicted pedophile can be repeatedly caught, convicted and then released like a fish in an Alberta lake. For too long the soft-headed disciples of the liberal church of the fuzzy bunnies have held our lawmaker's in their sway. The accepted legal practices of making deals with the crown, copping to lesser offenses in order to ensure an easy prosecution, soft-headed laws that include mandatory parole after serving only two-thirds of a sentence, and other forms of early release need to be eliminated.

Years of rehabilitation as a guest of our penal system have not made Peter Whitmore a productive member of society. It's time for the pendulum of justice to swing away from the false hope of 'rehabilitation' and back towards 'deterence.' Peter Whitmore wouldn't have very much success at seducing or abducting children with the word PERVERT tattood across his forhead in big red letters, would he?

There are places where people don't need to fear for their children's safety, where property crimes are almost unheard of, and where it's safe to go for a late night stroll on a dark city street. I like being a Canadian, and living in Canada, but we need to look for some new ideas. Like in Singapore, for example, where teenage hooligans caught vandalizing property are publicly caned on the first offense.

Guess what? Vandalism isn't much of a problem in Singapore. What applications of this principle would work here? Talk about things that make you go: Hmmmmmmmm.

UN Assisting Hezbollah Terrorists in Lebanon

I am amazed at the amount of bullshit with which the midstream media has covered the so-called crisis in Lebanon.

Traveling on the road Tuesday and Wednesday I heard accounts from the CBC, Broadcast news, and the Chorus Radio network about the deaths among UN observers (including Canadian Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener of Kingston, Ont.) manning a UN observer post between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah strongholds in Southern Lebanon. Even 11 hours ago the Globe and Mail ran a story that claimed the UN observers said there was no Hezbollah activity in their area prior to the bombing; that UN Secretary Gen Kofi Annan claimed the attack was deliberate. The Sun reported UN quotes that the nearest Hezbollah positions were 500 meters away.

Not once in the midstream media as I encountered it through out my day, did I hear or see the following:

That yesterday Canadian General Lewis McKenzie reported receiving emails from Maj. Hess-von Kruedener describing how Hezbollah terrorists had taken up positions within three Meters of the UN post.
To quote MacKenzie, "What he was telling us was Hezbullah fighters were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them and that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it."

Today a UN economics Panel has voted 45-3 to censure Israel for their treatment of the Palestinians, and demanded the Jews give Hamas the tax revenue transfers they've withheld ever since the self-proclaimed terrorist party won took power in January.

Who voted against? The U.S., Canada, and Australia. Thank God for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The stinking Liberals under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin had a record of abstaining from such votes or worse, voting with the pro-terrorists.

I think it's obvious that the UN is supporting Hezbolla by claiming their observers were far removed from terrorist positions. The vast majority of the media reports about this conflict have been subtly, (and in many instances openly) anti-Israel. Hell, when the shelling began it was only after a day that I heard Israeli civilians were being targeted by Hezbolla rockets, and 2 full days before I heard someone in the mid-stream media admit Hezbolla had attacked Israel first.

We don't waste any of our time watching midstream Television news in our household. I get most of my news from the internet, and to a lesser extent, radio news programs from the United States and Canada. Much more rarely, I'll peruse a newspaper.

Senate recommends CBC stop competing

Ever read one of those news stories that starts off as if it's good news, and then ends up in the out-house?

Today's news regarding a Senate committee report that recommends Canada's Government funded broadcaster stop competing with commercial broadcasters is one of those. For decades now, commercial television stations have lamented the unfair advantage CBC Television has in being able to compete for the private sector's advertising dollars, while glutting itself leech-like, on an annual billion dollar subsidy from the Federal budget.
I've long lamented the way the taxpayer has to pay for the CBC's biased left wing worldview, and this news story at first seemed like it was heaven sent. Perhaps it might be the harbinger of more and better things to come like the privatization of the whole damn thing?

But no. The senate committee recommended increasing the CBC's budget by another 400 million dollars, to replace the money it currently gets from selling advertisements. The Senate also wants the CBC to get back to it's core purpose, ( of reaching Canadians in remote areas and providing uniquely Canadian programming?) instead of trying to be all things to all people.

There was a time when that made sense, but there isn't a community in the far north now that does not have access to digital satellite TV or the internet. English language viewership of the CBC had dropped to an embarrassing 5.8% by 2002. Between 2003 and 2005 the privately owned CTV network had double the number of Canadian-produced dramatic TV hours that the CBC had. If ever there was an example of government waste through duplication of services it's the CBC.

A quick check of google in the 24 hours after this story broke, the only news item defending the CBC was from the CBC themselves. lol.

downsides

One of the downsides of this otherwise excellent job I have, is I am often too busy to add to this blog my thoughts about all the issues I'd like to comment on. Running Zarqawi down like a rabid dog, the bitching whining and screaming by the left about how Ann Coulter's new book 'Godless' hurt their feelings, or demands by the New Democrats, Canada's official Left-wing(nut) party, that the Harper Gov't shitcan their Conservative Enviroment Minister Rona Ambrose because she doesn't believe in Global Warming (she gets my vote!).
Oh well.

“I do what I do, so you can do what you do.” Capt. Nichola Goddard

Captain Nichola Goddard's funeral is tomorrow.

The Feminists and their ilk demanded equality for women in the military, and now that one has died in combat, they're demanding we abandon our commitment to the war on terror.

Now that a female Canadian soldier has died fighting Taliban terrorists, the same pro-feminist liberals who insisted that combat roles be opened to women are now demanding Canada withdraw it's Afghanistan mission. Their arguments are varied, but they all seem to have a at least three things in common:
1) They all pretty much ignore that fact that the Afghanis WANT us there, to help rebuild their society.
2) Like Afghanistan's Taliban and their Al Quaida supporters, it seems like it's pretty much only the opposition Liberals and NDP and their supporters, (like the CBC) who don't want us there.
3) Finally, the point they all seem to hold most dear: They all seem to think that abandoning the Afgan peoples to the drug lords and Mullahs who destroyed the country in the first place is somehow good because it undermines American foreign policy.

Goddard's father Tim, is a University of Calgary professor specializing in the restoration of education systems in war-torn countries. Her mother Sally said Nichola once told him “I do what I do, so you can do what you do”

Captain Nichola Goddard deserves to be remembered for more than just being our first female combat fatality. That's trivializing her death for the feminist ideology of exclusion. She certainly doesn't deserve the legacy NDP leader Jack Layton would give her: cause celebre for the abandonment of the Afghan mission that would ultimately make her death meaningless.
Hopefully she will be remembered as a soldier, citizen, wife, and daughter who did her duty as she saw it, and died doing what she wanted to do.

Stupid Politician of the Month:

Socialist MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis.

Sun Media carried a story Saturday, about how the MP believes that a sales tax on Tampons unfairly penalizes Women for their reproductive systems. Unfairly? I'm pretty sure men who buy tampons for their wives have to pay the tax too...

I think she didn't go far enough. The taxman also unfairly penalizes Men for their gender by indiscriminately forcing them to pay income tax on all support and alimony payments to their ex-wives. Hmmmm, for years the taxman has also unfairly discriminated against married couples with children, by allowing only unmarried coulples to deduct childcare expenses.The sales tax also unfairly penalizes men AND women who need automobiles to get to work, by taxing both the gasoline they buy, and taxing the gas tax buried in the price per litre, they need their cars to get to work, but can't deduct the expense.

My point is that a sales tax is really only fair if everyone pays the same rate and for everything. As soon as you start making excemptions, even with good intentions, it exacerbates unfairness rather than diminishes it. This is just another example of stupid feminist ideology stirring up more shit for the rest of us to put up with...

This is the third time Wasylycia-Leis has tried to get her Feminine Freshness tax-exemption private member's bill passed. Previous Liberal Governments, who of course have never met a tax they didn't like, have twice before allowed her bill to die on the order paper.

Perhaps they (groan) smelled something they didn't like...

MP Persecuted for Criticism of Supreme Court

The hounding of Saskatchewan Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott out of a Commons Committee Chairmanship is chillingly reminiscent of the pre-WWII Nazi persecution of the German Jewish community. In a CBC interview, Vellacott said that he didn't think it was the role of Judges to play God, and he specifically criticized Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, for claiming to have the mystical Power to better know the mind and will of the People, than the People themselves, or their elected representatives.
Having failed to re-shape Canada democratically, Canada's Activist Supreme Court has become the Loony Left's Primary Hope for remolding our society in favour of their pet causes and beliefs. Their voicepiece, the CBC, began a campaign to smear Vellacott by exaggerrating his statements and claiming his beliefs somehow render him unfit to serve as chairman of Parliament's Aboriginal Affairs Committee.
So, on the basis of his remarks that Judges aren't God, he was forced to step down this week as Chairman of the House of Commons Aboriginal Affairs committee.
A spokesman from Mount Olymp- er, Chief Justice McLaughlin's Office deliberately misinterpreted Vellacott's statement, denying the Chief Justice ever said the Justices had God-like powers.
While many things bother me about this persecution of an elected MP, Two things bother me more than most.

1) That Vellacott was persecuted by the midstream media in general, and more specifically an organ of the state, (the CBC- you guess which organ I'm thinking of...) for publicly disagreeing with the whole idea of Activist Judges. By persecuting Vellacott they commit an offense against his constitutional right to freedom of Speech. They also offend against the majority of voters in Vellacott's riding who voted for him, knowing full well he's a former Pastor and outspoken critic of so-called gay- marriage and Infanticide (abortion).

2) That Her-Supremeness McLachlin has publicly stated her belief that the Supreme Court has the duty and self-endowed RIGHT to dictate norms to Canadians, even if Parliament, The Constitution, and public opinion oppose them, is a matter of public record. That Vellacott was persecuted for his remarks, and that her office now claims she didn't say anything like that smacks frighteningly of Orwell's 1984. Yet last December McLachlin gave a speech to Law students at Victoria University in New Zealand where she claimed that Judges had the duty to force elected lawmakers to conform to whatever currently trendy extra-constitutional principles they wished to read-in to the Constitution. You can read her speech here.

You may heard that Power Corrupts. In fact, It's Power with Unaccountability that Corrupts. And who has more unaccountable power than our unelected Supreme Court Justices?

The CBC had long ago earned my contempt. That these Liberal-appointed, and unaccountable activist judges on our Supreme Court presume to know better than Canadians and their elected Parliament the direction our society should go has also earned them my, -well, you know.

Self Serving Media locked out of Trenton

Hollow, insincere, and self-serving. That's how the media and NDP sounded as they claimed the Conservative government is hiding something. Yesterday the Government to banned the media from directly reporting from the airport ceremony at CFB Trenton, where four fallen Canadian soldiers returned to Canadian soil.

That Canada's 'Liberal-Government-ordered' expedition to Afghanistan is among the most open and transparent military operations in the middle east is widely acknowleged. When four Canadian soldiers died there on Saturday, the media was there to report it right after it happened, reporting as the bodies were recovered, and reported on the ceremonies in Kandahar when they were shipped home. How the hell can they claim the Conservative government has something to hide?

Easily, if it's for gain.

So who gains? Do the families of the fallen soldiers gain by having their grief displayed across the nation? Will our military's families morale be improved by media sensationalism of the dangers of service in a combat zone? Will our serving soldiers morale be helped? Will their determination to fulfill their duties be strengthened by dragging down the morale of their families? Of course not.

What do those people in the military think? They already know when someone dies down here," said Gunner Hugo Girouard to Canadian Press, a soldier from Shilo, Manitoba serving in Afghanistan. "Why dramatize more what is already dramatic?" The Edmonton Sun reported: "When asked what their biggest concern would be should something happen to them, very nearly all the soldiers who agreed to speak yesterday said they preferred grieving family members be shielded from what they consider to be the sometimes ruthless intensity of the media spotlight. In late March, when Pte. Robert Costall was killed in a possible friendly fire incident in nearby Helmand province, many soldiers reacted with horror and disgust when specifics of his autopsy made headlines in a national newspaper."

So lets ask again, who benefits?

Ottawa Citizen columnist Susan Rilley was so upset, she wants to throw the fact of our casualties into the public's face again and again and disrupt all our daily routines. If you look hard enough through a population of 30 million people you can find all kinds of opinions: The CBC actually dug up the father of an earlier casualty who said he was comforted by having the media at his son's funeral. The Edmonton Journal tried to claim the government is engaged in a "propagandistic hiding of combat's cost".
The NDP has always choked on anything to do with the military, and leader Jack Layton couldn't constrain himself from announcing that Prime Minister Harper was acting 'very American.' (Clearly Layton has forgotten which country enshrined Freedom of the Press into their constitution first, 1791 in the U.S. versus 1982 in Canada.)

Disrupting our daily routines will help the suffering Afghanis how? Demoralizing our troops will help them how? The media has clearly forgotten that our military is in a war zone, and so far all the propagandizing has been by those clearly opposed to Canadian involvement. Broadcasting grieving families on national TV isn't anti-war propaganda? Would we be helping Afghanistan and Iraq by ending the war on terror? Gimme a break. According to a recent BBC poll, the most optimistic people in the Middle East are Afghans and Iraqis.

In the United States this debate has been going on even longer. The major News organizations , now run by aging baby boomers eager to relive the remembered glory of the anti-vietnam war movement, are almost uniformly against the war on terror, even while publicly claiming they 'support the troops.' Yet the LA Times has admitted that you can't be in 'support of our troops' and 'anti-war' at the same time.

Royal Canadian Navy veteran William Knight, 81, said it best, that It is detrimental to morale to re-tell the story of soldiers killed in war. "We don't need all the press, all the photographers, all the scribblers. They've done the story so many times, they know what the reaction's going to be. They know what the family's reaction's going to be."

Another moonbat lashes out

Here's an interesting exchange I had with a 32 year old Librarian about Iraq. He's too blinded by his political viewpoint to let facts get in the way of 'his' reality. This guy's outlook is quite prevalent in the education system. I'm so glad we homeschool, and that my kids aren't often exposed to mindsets like this guy's.

We join the conversation midway:

'V' wrote:
Sad thing is that its only logical for a country who has just witnessed earths biggest superpower invade their neighbour on false pretext, to arm itself with at least the threat of nuklear arms. If that was not the case the hassle of foreign pressure, possible embargo and trade sanctions would not be worth it.

I answered:
False pretext my ass. Wake up. The Pentagon has thousands of captured Iraqi documents that they're slowly translating, and they're revealing that there were WMDs in Iraq, and that Bin Ladden met with officials of the Hussein regime to discuss joint operations. That last one was dated Feb 19, 1995.
Hell, this January the Administration released 12 hours of audiotapes of meetings from one the Hussein palaces, that include discussions between the dictator and his staff, including Tariq Aziz, about how to hide their WMDs.
As for Iran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has previously declared he wants to nuke Israel and America. Only an imbecillic pollyanna would accept Iran's latest statements that they're into nuclear power only for it's 'Peaceful' benefits.

'V' wrote:
Hamm you´re so full of it. Thousands of captured iraqi documents that there slowly translating!? Poor things, arabic is so awfully difficult language, written from right to left and all.
When taken into account how desperate Rummsfeld and al. where to proove that there were indeed WMD in Iraq it would be very strange if they first got around to translating them now. Its more likely the Pentagon is faking those documents themselfes.
It is well documented that Saddam and Bin Laden were enemies, "joint operations" is wishful thinking on behalf of the neo-cons.
The president of Iran is no less of an asshole than Bush but he never said anything about nuking either Israel or USA. What he has said is that Israel should be relocated to Europe, and personally I think that would have been a good idea, they should have gotten the Rhine walley in Germany.
Or the Palestinians who where driven out of what is now Israel should have gotten that territory as compensaton.

I answered:
Proof? Magazine and News stories? Read em and weep.

January 27th - A Warded Neuron Hussein's #2 Airforce General tells all.
April 2006 World Magazine Cover story: Iraqi Documents
Boston Globe, March 18th US PUTS DOCUMENTS ON THE WEB.
The Australian, March 19th Saddam's Al-Qa'ida link
oooh oooh. Here's a final link:
Evidence the administration was right, Mounts.

If I'm full of anything, it's the truth.

Wake up.

I got in an argument online today with an idiot too stupid to know there's a gun pointed to his head. That guy actually thought Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was truthful in his claim that their nuclear fuel enrichment programs were intended for peaceful use only. I think he was Neville Chamberlain in a previous life.
So if he's correct, then Ahmadinejad was only kidding about nuking America and Israel?

I don't think so either.

Some interesting thoughts on this issue by Dr. Jerry Pournelle. He writes:

First, anyone not blind will see that the West has been teaching powerful lessons over the years:

The first lesson is: if you are a dictator, or part of an unpopular government structure, get nukes, get them quick, get them in any way you have to. Get nukes and get them now...

The view from Chaos manor. Check it out.

The Evils of Socialism - Back for a 2nd Appearance

Yes, I posted this pic in 2005, (after finding it at SondraK's.) But today, for some reason, I had the need to say something about the fruits of socialism...

Government Economist proves Spending Cuts help the Poor

The Poverty-Advocacy Industry will hate this one. Communism had failed for all to see, and the western liberal governments were publicly disavowing big government spending... (only temporarily, of course) Always quick to sway with public opinion in order to stay in power, the Canadian Liberal government cut government spending (with great fanfare) in an attempt to rein in it's deficit. Big Government Labour Unions, Social spending advocates, and their fellow travelers predicted dire consequences for the nation's poor.

But according to a study by Finance Ministry Ec0nomist Dagmar Dyck, there's a surprise ending. Writing in the Canadian Tax Journal Dyck showed that rather than hurting the lowest rungs of society, as unions and poverty activists angrily predicted, Canada's economy actually became more equitably distributed in the nineties. That kind of information could be dangerous to a lot of special interest groups.

Ben Stanley's column in the April 10th Western Standard has more:
"But those lean years are just a memory. Last year, Ottawa increased program spending by a stunning 15.1 per cent and the new Conservative government was elected promising to tack on another $22.7 billion in spending. Combined with $45 billion in tax cuts, the Tories are headed for deficits if they don't start making "heroic" cuts, according to a February report by Don Drummond, the TD Bank's chief economist. At least this time, when the feds are compelled to start cutting, they can claim they're doing it to help the poor, and use the Canadian Tax Journal as proof--that is, presuming some of us have actually read it."