How to Talk To and About Progressives

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Today's Headline: Jack Off Message

I can see the headline for tomorrow's papers:

Jack Off message? Ooops, I mean: Jack Off Massage!

Too sticky? Perhaps.

...much much more.

How John put the Jack in Layton

Jack Layton is campaigning to be the next Prime Minister of Canada. Jack Layton was found naked in a whorehouse. Jack Layton was found with, though not in, a 3rd World Sex Trade Worker.

Jack Layton alleges he frequented this whorehouse for "therapeutic massage". He was found naked at this establishment at 1:30 AM in the morning, when as we all know legitimate institutes of therapeutic massage do their best "found-in" er..."walk-in" business.

Jack's 3rd World Sex Trade Worker/Therapeutic Masseuse came from China. It is unknown if her "masseuse" qualifications were recognized in Canada beyond an informal acknowledgement by afficianados and operators within the world's oldest profession. I can't say with certainty but I do not recall there being a critical shortage of "3rd World Therapeutic Masseuses" necessitating their urgent import from China. Perhaps it was one of those "Doing The Hand Jobs Canadians Won't Do" things.

... continue reading.

Watch a Move to the Tories Based on Fear

... fear of Jack.

New Delhi Says NO to US Aircraft Firms

... it will be either Rafale or Eurofighter Typhoon:

India has shortlisted Dassault’s Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon for a $12 billion dollar fighter jet deal, cutting out US giants Boeing and Lockheed, sources said Thursday. “Only France’s Dassault and Eurofighter have been requested to extend their commercial bids,” a defence ministry official, who declined to be named, told AFP.

One of the most valuable and sought-after military contracts of recent years, the deal for 126 fighters has witnessed fierce competition between defence majors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, Sweden’s Saab AB and the Russian makers of the MiG 35.

Al Canada

Recruiting in Montreal:

The Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque in Montreal was among nine houses of prayer or Islamic institutes worldwide considered by the U.S. military to be places where "known al-Qaeda members were recruited, facilitated or trained," according to leaked classified American intelligence documents.

According to the Pentagon's Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants, among documents from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, posted by the New York Times on Sunday, the other mosques or Islamic centres included:

... think how much more of this shite there`ll be when our progressive masters, PM Harper included, allow more Muslims to flood into Canada.

In the meanwhile, Denmark grows a brain.

Muslim Massacres: How to React

Tornadoes: Serves Those Climate Deniers Right

The color of guano is green:

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”

The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

... more.

Bastardi on why climate is about weather; and weather is about climate.

From Danforth to 24 Sussex

Step One: Harper wins a minority.

Step Two: Jack forms the official opposition.

Step Three: The Socialist Trio drop the government.


Step Four: GG asks Jack if he can form a government.

Step Five: Jack is crowned PM at the head of the Socialist Trio.

Alternative One:

Jack Layton wins a minority government.

... It must be the limp, the cane, and high forehead.

Alternative Two:

Terrified of a Jack Layton PMO, Canadians give Mr. Harper a majority.

The Phrase That May Seal a Majority

... "NDP-led Coalition:"

In the final days of the election campaign, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is sticking to the same appeal to voters for a majority government that he started with, but now there's a twist.

It's either a Conservative majority, Harper says, or the potential of a coalition -- but now, that coalition could be led by NDP Leader Jack Layton, not Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

Prime Minister Jack Layton

Step One: Harper wins a minority.

Step Two: Jack forms the official opposition.

Step Three: The Socialist Trio drop the government.

Step Four: GG asks Jack if he can form a government.

Step Five: Jack is crowned PM at the head of the Socialist Trio.

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Don't Try This at Home

Unless you're a professional Russian:



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Roots

Big Gov Dot CA

John Baird says the Conservatives, if elected, will not make deep cuts to the public service as they seek to trim $4 billion annually in federal program spending.

At a meeting of Ottawa West-Nepean candidates for the May 2 election with the Citizen editorial board on Thursday, Baird said the government can find $4 billion in savings without decimating the public service.

“I believe we can do so and not have major reductions in the public service,” Baird said. “We have to be honest. We have a $29-billion deficit that’s going to require some modest reductions. But they will be modest. They won’t be slash and burn as the Liberals did.”

Details

We Call Summer Barbecue Season ...

Some Muslims call it something else:

Burned corpses with machete wounds lay in roads and smoke rose above this city where rioting broke out again Tuesday among Muslim opposition supporters who were angered by the announcement that the Christian incumbent president had won the election.

F-35: A Tale of Uncertainty (Updated)

"Combined," says Venlet, those factors "make it impossible to give you any [O&S] number that is something to build on, going forward."

[...]

Makes me truly wonder at the obliviousness to facts that allows the tinkerbells of this world to continually spew their nonsense about the magnificence of the F35.
Even if it does (eventually) get as good as they pray it does, surely they must see that other platforms will also be there and there abouts by that time. Add in the costs over the extended development period and that primary objective of affordability has just gone sailing right out of the window.

Sheesh

Any politician who tells you they know the cost and production schedule of the F-35 is out and out lying their ass off.

Update: DND Weighs In

Rigged

The deeper one digs, the greater the stench:

The little-known not-for-profit company works behind the scenes at international conferences to further its aims.

One of its key supporters headed the official investigation into the so-called "Climategate emails", producing a report which cleared experts of deliberately attempting to skew scientific results to confirm that global warming was a real threat.

Another scientific expert linked to the group came forward to praise a second independent investigation into the Climategate affair which also exonerated researchers.

Italy Celebrates a Century of Bombing Libya

On the 100th Anniversary of the Italo-Turkish war, when bombs were dropped by Italy from the air, for the first time ever, Italy is embarking on a commemorative bombing of Libya.

Union Thug School

The Education of Jack Layton

Step One: Harper wins a minority.

Step Two: Jack forms the official opposition.

Step Three: The Socialist Trio drop the government.

Step Four: GG asks Jack if he can form a government.

Step Five: Jack is crowned PM at the head of the Socialist Trio.

Never have so many witnessed so little from so few ... what is this, the prozac election?

The only one out there with any life is Jack, what with his cane and high forehead wading into crowds with the ease of a ... revolutionary ... he's clearly turning some heads. Essentially, Jack is stuck with a message that will never win over a majority of Canadians.  It's a case of the right man, at the right time, with the wrong brand.

... but he's also playing in a field of complete duds when it comes to public personality. We have the googly eyed French separatist; the goolish professor; and Perry Como.

How bad does Steve want this?  Slow and steady may yet win this thing for the CPC ... but after moving slow and steady in the wrong direction for several years now, I wonder how many former supporters are sitting this one out, or holding their nose and voting CPC but NOT helping out local campaigns.

Enjoy the CPC rally video ...



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A Lone Voice

Our New Allies Show us Their Meat Cutting Skills

After all, they got their training killing our soldiers in Afghanistan.

See our new friends at work.

Introducing Prime Minister Jack Layton

Step One: Harper wins a minority.

Step Two: Jack forms the official opposition.

Step Three: The Socialist Trio drop the government.

Step Four: GG asks Jack if he can form a government.

Step Five: Jack is crowned PM at the head of the Socialist Trio.

Oh Canada! If the CPC do not use their superior finances to drive this fact into every single Canuck cranium in every single swing riding, then we are doomed.

The Libyan Farce ... Is Being Played Out in Syria

When we rushed into Libya, we were told that the adventure was all about humanitarianism ... something to do with preventing the killing of civilians:

Syrian security forces fired live bullets and tear gas Friday on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country, killing at least 27 people -- including a young boy -- in one of the bloodiest days of the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime, witnesses said.

Protesters flooded into the streets after Muslim prayers in at least nine major areas across the country, a sign that Assad's attempts to quell the monthlong protests with a deadly crackdown and promises of reform have all but failed.

90 Dead

A Colossal Waste of Money Delayed

Reuters:

The U.S. Air Force and Navy may not be able to field the new Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter until after 2016, the Pentagon official who runs the program said on Thursday.

Vice Admiral David Venlet told reporters that the fighter jet was making progress on testing and production after a major restructuring earlier this year that put it on a more realistic path.

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How's That Muslim Immigration Working for You?

Liaquat Ali Khan:

Invoking their constitutional right, American Muslims should petition the United States Congress for a redress of grievances. They must demand constitutionally sound legislation that outlaws desecrations of the Qur'an. For Congress, such legislation will demonstrate to American Muslims that the United States is prepared to break away from the medieval custom of assaulting the dignity of the Qur'an.

Low Level Socialist Agitator

Tornado Foolishness

I storm chase and have seen a number of tornadoes, 2 particularly close up. What a lot of people don't realize, is that vehicles are death traps when struck by tornadoes.

It's difficult sometimes for individuals to determine if they are in the path of a tornado, even if they see it coming. Here's what to look for:

- pick a reference point on the ground between yourself and the tornado. Anything will do, even a shrub in the distance. Then, keep track of the tornado's movement relative to the reference point. If the tornado and reference point keep their aspect, then the tornado is moving either directly away or directly toward your location. Keep in mind as well, that tornadoes don't move in a perfectly straight line and can pause, backtrack, and change their direction of travel. Strong tornadoes will often tack to the right (to your left if they are coming head on).

The following video demonstrates the point perfectly ... pick your reference and watch what the tornadoes does. The individual filming this twister should've been on the move, slipping away laterally, As it is, he was very lucky ... as well, his initial assessment that the twister was a weak one was faulty because most twisters are "weak ones" when they first touch down.  It doesn't take long though, for things to change:

Yowza!

Business opposition to Julia Gillard’s carbon tax has intensified, with food and grocery producers falling into line with miners to warn the levy could destroy jobs and slash living standards.

Cap and Tax ... it's all fun until somebody loses an eye.

Taste Worth Dying For

A Baker's Dozen ... of Carp

+ 6:

A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure

Libyan rebel forces have been driven from the key eastern town of Ajdabiya by troops loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Government forces on Sunday shelled the strategically important city, the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks, forcing the rebels to retreat toward their stronghold in Benghazi, some 160 kilometers to the north.

The rebels had advanced as far as the outskirts of Brega on Saturday, a key oil town about 100 kilometers to the west.

Gadhafi forces laid siege to Ajdabiya last month with tanks, armored personnel carriers and heavy artillery, but were pushed back by NATO airstrikes that cleared the way for the rebels to push west.

But even with the airstrikes, the rebels have struggled against Gadhafi's better trained and equipped troops, and have been unable to reach Sirte, the Libyan leader's hometown and the gateway to government-held territory.

Gadhafi's forces, under the threat of further NATO aitrsikes, have been unable to advance on Benghazi.

In Paris, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet dismissed statements from a top NATO official that the alliance is short of aircraft. Longuet said instead that NATO's mission in Libya is hampered by a lack of ground information.

Source

Reloaded

The Inch by Inch Majority

David Suzuki: Meet Czech Physicist

In which Dr. Motl refuses to hide his disdain:

Tom Nelson, Steven Goddard, Climate Quotes, and others have noticed that David Suzuki and his wife need a help of a psychiatrist and they tried to provide Suzuki with some comfort:

[...]

The answer suggests Suzuki might be more than just another corrupt crook and liar of Gore's type: he could actually suffer from a classifiable psychiatric disorder:

The Oxygen of Freedom

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American Pie

Liberal Versus Conservative Brain Study

The study is more than likely destined for the dust bin where all other such blatant attempts to pigeon hole conservatives or liberals biologically, should end up. Let's leave that kind of thinking to Tommy Douglas.

But, just for fun, let's examine its most blatant implication, which suggests that our blog logo is founded in hard science ... heh:

"But then, there is the "progressive" class ... that aimless mass of Western humanity so burdened by cultural self-loathing that it is to Islam, as ungulates are to lions."

Poor liberals, destined to be a prey species  ... but, a prey species that excels at "focus groups" and "studies" and turning common sense into intellectual "pretzeldom"!  Smart enough to build the train; too stupid to get off the tracks.

Another Damning Windpower Report

At some point, those gutless wonders who know full well that wind-power is not "green", have got to quit the game and come clean. Even in Saskatchewan, where my favorite Canadian premier runs the show, lip-service is given to eco-mania in the form of bird shoppers.

How much evidence will be needed before even our "conservative" leaders get the balls to walk away from wind ... after all, "wind" (hot at least) is their business:

Stuart Young Consulting, with support from the John Muir Trust, has released a report studying the ability of wind power to make a significant contribution to the UK's energy supply. It concludes that the average power output of wind turbines across Scotland is well below the rates often claimed by industry and government.

Indeed, for numerous extended periods of time all the wind turbines in Scotland linked to the National Grid muster less than 20MW of energy - that's enough power for a mere 6,667 households to boil their kettles for a cup of tea.

Helen McDade, head of policy at the John Muir Trust, the U.K.’s leading wild land conservation charity, said: "This report is a real eye opener for anyone who's been wondering just how much power Scotland is getting from the fleet of wind turbines that have taken over many of our most beautiful mountains and hillsides. The answer appears to be not enough, and much less than is routinely claimed.”

Stuart Young, author of the report, said, “Over the two-year period studied in this report, the metered windfarms in the U.K. consistently generated far less energy than wind proponents claim is typical. The intermittent nature of wind also gives rise to low wind coinciding with high energy demand. Sadly, wind power is not what it's cracked up to be and cannot contribute greatly to energy security in the UK."

The Purple Health Plan

Another attempt to save America from herself:

With everyone offering some version of a US budget, one more ridiculous than the other, one thing is certain: nobody has any clue how to fix America's fiscal catastrophe. And while the biggest soap opera rages in D.C. Larry Kotlikoff, who recently served as the only rational contributor to the just released IMF what paper "An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?" summarizes the "progress" so far: "The two parties are having a heated debate over the Republican plan to slice $61 billion off Uncle Sam’s projected $3.6 trillion budget. If the Republicans get their way, the deficit will fall from 9.5 percent of gross domestic product to 9.1 percent. If they don’t, they’ll probably shut the government for a couple of days. Then they’ll compromise on, say, a $40 billion budget cut, having proved they gave it their best shot." And sick of the corrupt petulance in DC, Kotlikoff has decided to propose his own budget. " I launched www.thepurplehealthplan.org last week to solicit endorsements for what I call the Purple Health Plan - - a proposal that offers common ground to both Republicans and Democrats. To date, five Nobel laureates in economics, George Akerlof, Edmund Phelps, Thomas Schelling, Vernon Smith and William Sharpe, have signed on. So have other prominent economists." We have not read it but fail to see how it can be possibly worse, especially since one Paul Krugman has not endorsed said plan.

Unlike most conservatives, including Sarah Palin, it's my belief that in order to solve the US fiscal crisis, another economic slowdown will have to be triggered.  It's no different than a debt crushed family (caused by reckless spending) having to penny pinch in order to set things right ... and that, in the face of reduced income.  Things will have to get worse, before they get better.

I still believe that in the long run the small-government-lower-taxes approach works best, that private sector expansion is the only long-term solution, but America is well beyond that ... as are the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Spain.  Furthermore, the last decade of government expansion in the US has seen tens of thousands of jobs leave US shores forever and they aren't coming back.

 When you go from being the world's number one nation of "makers", and instead become a society of "takers", reversing the trend will take tough medicine:

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure

Look at the bright side ... Canada is a significant donor:

Nato officials will not say which other countries are providing a strike capability, but the Guardian has been told that only Denmark, Canada and Norway have agreed to take part. The rest of the countries that form the coalition either do not have the right equipment or have stipulated that they will help only to enforce the no-fly zone and will not allow their planes to conduct bombing missions.

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The New Taliban: Hamid Karzai

On March 24, the Iranian foreign ministry, Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, and Karzai’s office issued simultaneous alarms about Jones’ Koran-burning. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said the incident was part of American “hegemonic plots.” Karzai called for Jones’ arrest and prosecution.

Glavin.

Welcome to the Kingdom of Lies

In which Victor Davis Hanson outdoes himself:

I am a subject in a kingdom of lies. At 57, I have grown up with decades of untruth — advanced for the purposes of purported social unity, the noble aim of egalitarianism, and the advancement of a cognitive elite in government, journalism, the arts, and the universities.

[...]

I did not quite know how “witch hunt” characterized the often disreputable tactics of Joe McCarthy — cruel and obnoxious were the better adjectives. You see, there were really communists in Hollywood at a time of a dangerous global cold war against communism, in a way there were never any witches at all in Salem.

[...]

The media is our ministry of truth of the Oceania brand: one day Guantanamo, renditions, tribunals, preventive detention, Predators, the Patriot Act, and Iraq were bad; then one day in January 2009 I woke up and heard of them not all bad [3]. I then recognized that they were now either good or at least necessary — or perhaps sinister IEDs of a sort left behind by the nefarious Emmanuel Goldstein administration, now too dangerous to even touch.

Read the the entire, outstanding, piece.

A Ship for Canada: With a Few Modifications

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A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure

Picking up the poo by the stinky end:

But French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday that air strikes are more difficult now that a large portion of Gadhafi's aircraft and armoured vehicles have been destroyed. As a result, pro-Gadhafi forces left on the ground are harder to distinguish from the deserters who have joined the rebel militia. Gadhafi's forces are also said to be entrenched in civilian areas of the besieged western city of Misrata, effectively taking cover among the civilian population.

"They snuck their anti-aircraft weapons and tanks into the city. They are between the apartment buildings and the trees," a doctor speaking on condition of anonymity told the AP. "They disguise their equipment on the big agricultural trucks that the farmers use outside of town. They bring in mortars with civilian cars."

... so, what now? You just know that The Colonel is going to infiltrate "our" rebels and eventually crush them, unless the rebels can use the vast sums of oil money available to purchase weapons and hire trained mercenaries ... oh ... never mind.

What lessons are the other tyrants of the region learning?  One is clearly that even if you quit supporting terror organizations and turn over your WMD, you're still likely to get bombed.  Had The Colonel still had his WMD though ... different story.

Canada, The Smallest Country in the Universe

... or so you'd think when you see what is cooked up for political "controversy" by the MSM and coalition of losers.

Stephen Harper is drawing fire from his rivals after party officials "unfriended" a London, Ont., university student who wanted to attend one of his rallies.

London teen Awish Aslam, said she and some friends were kicked out of a Conservative rally on Sunday when organizers saw her Facebook profile picture, which was a snapshot of her with Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

That's right ... Japan loses 10K plus people and is in the middle of digging out from a devastating tsunami ... Canada is embroiled in it's second war ... the winners in the Ivory Coast election slaughter 1000 Christians in an orgy of UN backed revenge ... Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and Iran murder their own people in the streets ... the Euro-zone is in danger of financial collapse ... and in Canada, horror of horrors, a teen is prevented from attending the most salient event in the history of Canada, an election rally.

It's enough to give one a headache.

Sure, I'm not a Harper fan, but simply for having to endure the above offered "news" item from CTV, which is the lead in the CTV online addition ... I hope Harper crushes their asses, sends Robert Fife to a gulag ... or better yet, clean-up duty at Japan's leaking reactors ... and then forces both Jack Layton and Iggy to snuggle together in a sleeping bag, for 5 years, reading Tolstory to each other over and over again ... Gilles can substitute during potty breaks, but only when he has time off from hard labor at the construction site of the shiny new Newfoundland hydro power station.

Surely, Canada is bigger than what passes for election news these days.

Harper Versus the Green Shaft

Adrian:

There are few things so pretentious and hypocritical as the carbon offset. That we have created a society so prosperous and free from hardship that dire calamities need to be invented in order to spend our money on placebos is symptomatic of the perils of too much pacifism.

Frankly, the only difference between Mr. Harper's Tories and the green menace, is that an elected LPC would try to implement a carbon offset scheme, while Mr. Harper would duck and dodge the issue. He has, after all, already put the system in place just waiting for the "on" switch to be hit.  Talk about keeping all doors open.

So, there's your choice ... a cabal of leftists ready to shaft us all with green guano ... or a PM ragging the puck.  For now, the only choice is the stick handler.

I on the other hand prefer the Maxime approach, not only because Maxime is speaking the truth, but because it goes with a new fresh honest approach to treating people like adults.

Foreign Policy Schizophrenia: The New World Order

VDH examines the "Obama Doctrine", which is essentially the complete lack of a doctrine ... which in turn brings us to Canada ... which essentially has no doctrine as well ... no consistent set of principles which would guide us.

While you read this salient VDH piece, consider Canada:

The president spoke Monday night to clarify our intervention in Libya. Instead he made things worse, and could not explain the mission (are we/are we not after Qaddafi?), the methodology to achieve it (are we in a no-fly-zone or are we bombing ground targets essential to save the rebels?), and the desired outcome (who are the “rebels,” what do we wish from them, and are they better than Qaddafi?). Indeed, after almost two weeks, these questions still have not been asked much less answered.

So the omissions pose the question: how did Obama, the archetype war critic [1], find himself bombing — in optional and preemptive fashion, and without congressional authority [2] — an Arab Muslim oil-exporting country, and one that posed no immediate threat to American national security, despite being governed by a monster who, nevertheless, had been recently courted by Western intellectuals, academics, universities, and diplomats?

Unfortunately, Obama has no principled or strategically logical foreign policy. So it is mostly loud declarations that he is not George Bush [3] and making things up ad hoc as he goes along. Here, I think, is what happened with Libya.

Sure, Canada isn't a world power ... hell, we aren't even a significant NATO power, but does that excuse us for not having a clear-cut foreign policy, one that Canadians can point to (either in agreement or disagreement) and say that under Harper, X,Y, and Z are the governing factors in Harper PMO foreign policy decision making.

For the life of me, I couldn't point to an X (other than verbal support of Israel), least of all a Y or Z that are borne out by consistent action and expressed concepts from the PMO. (unless of course foreign policy in Canada today is as simple as asking ... does X get me closer to a majority?)

What I suspect is happening, is that Canadian foreign policy (and European) has in the past consisted of the simple act of either agreeing or disagreeing with American foreign policy ... America led, and we either followed or dodged (Chretien dodged Iraq but jump into Afghanistan) Now, with the Chronic-Golfer-in-Chief installed in the W.H., there is a vacuum and into that vacuum have been sucked the likes of Canada and her European friends, who have neither a firm rudder nor experience taking the lead in much more than issuing stern statements, bitching, or dutifully following.

So, what do we get? ... foreign policy schizophrenia where anything can happen and consistency is the last thing we should expect.  We find ourselves, for example, bombing The Colonel, and on the verge of being complicit in the creation of another radical unfriendly Muhammadan state ... or the takers of a side in a civil war.

A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure

In which American fly-boys go home, and the Colonel reloads:

Qaddafi this appears to have taken advantage of coalition shortcomings to start deploying his considerable fleet of air transports, moving troop reinforcements and equipment to hotspots, enabling his forces to hold down the rebels. It also appears that some of those transports have also been sent outside the country.

According to some reports, they have been loading up at a number of African military air bases on ammunition and spare parts, which the Qaddafi regime purchased from Arab and African sources as well as arms traffickers.

Small wonder, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton had warned that the RAF will need to be in Libya for at least six months.

In the meanwhile, Canada's war for F-35s looks like it's going to help produce one of two nasty results ... a long drawn out civil war kept long and drawn out by NATO air power ... or a hardcore Islamic state long on Muhammadanism and short on anything resembling human dignity and freedom.

A secondary result of Our Most Excellent Libyan Adventure will be the swelling of the flood of refugees ... some of whom are less than quaint innocents.

Ban Comes Home

Killing for Contracts

The Most Excellent Libyan Adventure ... more to do with F-35 contracts ... and not humanitarian concerns, especially the saving of Muhammadans from themselves.

The Conservatives have shifted their public relations strategy on the controversial F-35, putting aside their previous arguments about the need for the stealth fighter to counter Russian aircraft in the Arctic, to focus now on the Libyan war as proof the multi-billion dollar jet purchase is required.

In defending his governments plan to buy the fighter, already dogged by concerns over escalating costs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper pointed to the role of Canadas CF-18s in the Libyan war.

I rest my case.

Using CF-18s to bomb the Colonel challenges the notion that Canada doesn't have the will to use the F-35 for what it was meant to do. Look here, the PMO can claim, we are willing to bomb foreigners so we DO need the multi-billion dollar waste of money ( and the Quebec jobs that will most likely come along with it).

Sharia Spring: Morality Police

Egypt:

Officials of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's leading Islamic group, have called for the establishment of a Saudi-style modesty police to combat "immoral" behavior in public areas in what observers say in another sign of a growing Islamic self-confidence in the post-Mubarak era.

In the political sphere, the Brotherhood led a successful drive to get voters to approve a package of constitutional amendments. On the street level, at least 20 attacks were perpetrated against the tombs of Muslim mystics (suffis), who are the subject of popular veneration but disparaged by Islamic fundamentalists, or salafis. After some initial hesitation, Islamic leaders have publicly praised the revolution.

"This is incredibly worrying to many Egyptians," Maye Kassem, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo (AUC), told The Media Line. "The salafis were always undercover in Egypt and now they are emerging as a political force. They are getting too vocal."

Of course, when the Brothers turn Egypt into even a greater guano deposit than it already is, there will be those who blame us.

The UN Backed Religion of Peace in Ivory Coast

Murderous bastards ... but, what's new in that?

"I can't go home, the rebels have guns. I don't have a gun. They kill people and rape women. They can kill children and then they take the small children to go and fight. It's impossible. I can't go back."

In the crowded Liberian refugee camps, just across the western border of Ivory Coast, there are thousands of frightened civilians who share the despair and sorrow of Djeke Fulgence. He stands amid the dusty rows of tents in the UNHCR transit camp for refugees in Toe Town, eastern Liberia.

More from Gateway about the slaughter of Christians by our UN allies.

The Iranian Quran Burning Riots in Kabul

Glavin:

In Afghanistan, you can always tell the Khomeinists' hand in "spontaneous" demonstrations by the tell-tale slogan Marg Bar Yahood (Death to the Jews). You can hear it for yourself in this raw video footage, about 55 seconds in.

That was what they were shouting in the first mini-riot in Kabul last week, which, so far as I can determine, the foreign press reported without exception as merely a spontaneous demonstration of Afghan anger in response to the Quran-burning escapade undertaken by that hillbilly crackpot imam Terry Jones. You'd think that Asif Mohseni, Iran's chosen ayatollah in Afghanistan, has had nothing to do with it. You'd never know that immediately prior to that first protest, Hamid Karzai allowed himself to be engaged by Iran's propagandists in Afghanistan to utter the ridiculous demand for Jones' arrest - causing the uproar that was the first that Afghans had even heard about the Quran-burning.

Quantas Nailed With $100 Million Carbon Tax

Qantas will pass on the cost of the carbon tax to its passengers, the airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce says.

Mr Joyce says a carbon price of between $20 and $30 a tonne would cost the company an estimated $100 million a year and passengers about $6 on domestic flights.

“We can’t digest the full cost ...” Mr Joyce told ABC Television today.

Hey, but what do you expect from a country that boasts 600 "top" climate scientists.

Sharia Spring

The Tyrannies are Doomed, is a provocative read by Barry Weis. You may not agree with it all, but Mr. Weiss makes some salient points:

First, Tunisia has real potential for democracy, largely because of the role of women there. "Tunisia, as far as I know, is the only Muslim country that has compulsory education for girls from the beginning right through. And in which women are to be found in all the professions," says Mr. Lewis.

"My own feeling is that the greatest defect of Islam and the main reason they fell behind the West is the treatment of women," he says. He makes the powerful point that repressive homes pave the way for repressive governments. "Think of a child that grows up in a Muslim household where the mother has no rights, where she is downtrodden and subservient. That's preparation for a life of despotism and subservience. It prepares the way for an authoritarian society," he says.

[...]

Another key variable in the regional dynamic is Turkey, Mr. Lewis's particular expertise. He was the first Westerner granted access to the Ottoman archives in Istanbul in 1950. Recent developments there alarm him. "In Turkey, the movement is getting more and more toward re-Islamization. The government has that as its intention—and it has been taking over, very skillfully, one part after another of Turkish society. The economy, the business community, the academic community, the media. And now they're taking over the judiciary, which in the past has been the stronghold of the republican regime." Ten years from now, Mr. Lewis thinks, Turkey and Iran could switch places.

The Islamic treatment of women ... hmmm ... chicken/egg.

The Inch by Inch Majority

Much of the Conservatives' growth is in the west, where support in British Columbia has gone up from 37.5 per cent in mid-March, to 49.7 per cent as of April 3.

In the Prairies, the Conservatives are polling at a strong 55.7 per cent, compared to 55.5 per cent in mid-March.

The Liberals, by comparison, have seen growth in Ontario, with support rising from 30.9 per cent in mid-March, to the current 37.5 per cent. The Liberals have remained relatively stable in B.C. and the Prairies, and have lost ground in Quebec.

The latest round of polling comes one day after Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unveiled his full campaign platform -- one that would shift the country away from military spending and a focused economic recovery, to social spending, breaks for families and help with education costs.

Source

More reading ... Quebec loves to be ignored.

Goldstone

In which the inquisitors have second thoughts:

The allegations of intentionality by Israel were based on the deaths of and injuries to civilians in situations where our fact-finding mission had no evidence on which to draw any other reasonable conclusion. While the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report have established the validity of some incidents that we investigated in cases involving individual soldiers, they also indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.

The "Green Economy" ... Taking Us Back In Time

Third, it is unreliable. The wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine when the energy is needed. We account for that today by having a lot of coal and natural gas generation on "standby" to fire-up when renewables can't produce. Incidentally, the cost of maintaining this backup generation is likewise never fully accounted for in the cost estimates associated with green energy. But in a world where fossil fuels are a thing of the past, we would be forced--like the peasants of the Dark Age--to rely upon the vagaries of the weather.

... read The Green Economy Reconsidered.

A Most Excellent Libyan Adventure in Ivory Coast

Libya ... it's all about the French oil people ... or so we were told.  Now a Canadian is leading this ill-conceived, misunderstood, tossed-together, planned-on-the-back-of-a-napkin war, where our new found "allies" (war tourists from abroad), couldn't fight their way out of a Girl Guides convention, and where intelligence is so poor that not even Hillary Clinton can tell us who they are.

Canada's quick jump to offer up jet fighters for The Most Excellent Libyan Adventure was bizarre, given that PM Harper is generally very deliberative, and given the fact that he would not commit jet fighters to Afghanistan even though we have boots on the ground and Canadian warriors in harm's way 24/7.  The cynic in me says that the quick injection of Canuck air power had little to do with humanitarian concerns ... otherwise Harper would've had our combat troops remain in Afghanistan, and would've long ago had CF-18s flying combat over Afghanistan to protect civilians from the Taliban and to protect our soldiers.  Furthermore, I don't believe the injection of Canuck jets had anything to do with oil either, as Canada benefits from insecure global oil supply.

Nope, the cynic in me says that the injection of Canada into this Abbott and Costello War had to do with two things:

1) the F-35 Fighter purchase ...

Using CF-18s to bomb the Colonel challenges the notion that Canada doesn't have the will to use the F-35 for what it was meant to do.  Look here, the PMO can claim, we are willing to bomb foreigners so we DO need the multi-billion dollar waste of money ( and the Quebec jobs that will most likely come along with it).

2) polls ...

The Abbott and Costello war cements the Harper meme that this election is unnecessary and that "stability" trumps elections  ... you know, earthquakes, weak economy and now bombing the Colonel. It's also possible that the "brain trust" within the PMO thought that the specter of CF-18s bombing those wascally Wibians would inject some "pride in country" and a bump in the polls for a decisive wartime PM. (bonus points for getting the top job at Excellent Libyan Adventure HQ)

But then, I'm just a cynic, right?

Of course, I'll eat my words if this time next week CF-18s are bombing the piss out of  Ivory Coast ... bombing both the "rebels" and our UN allies.  After all, it's all about averting human tragedy ... right?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized the US position as 'deeply concerned' over the Ivory Coast civil war and the reported massacre of 1,000 people at the hands of UN-backed Ivory Coast leadership.

... or Syria, or Yemen, or Bahrain ... or

D'Aleo: Year of the Hurricane

Exploring the link between a fading Nina and landfalls USA.

When So Few, Get So Much, From So Many

Rex on the repugnant spectacle of Gilles (protection racket) Duceppe whining about Newfoundland hydro power.

It’s one of the continuing risibilities of the Canadian federation that we cosset and pamper and pay for the separatist faction in the House of Commons, and go along with the pretense that they’re parliamentarians like any other. They are not. They displace the natural balance of the federation. They have a vested interested in seeing the parliament they attend not working. And they leap to any perceived or manufactured imperfection in our system as evidence of dark perfidy or contempt for Quebec. They warp the system. Nowhere do these observations meet with greater validation than these ludicrous comments by Duceppe on the proposed assistance to the Lower Churchill.

Not All Cultures Are Equal

Here is something I have learned the hard way, but which a lot of well-meaning people in the West have a hard time accepting: All human beings are equal, but all cultures and religions are not. A culture that celebrates femininity and considers women to be the masters of their own lives is better than a culture that mutilates girls’ genitals and confines them behind walls and veils or flogs and stones them for falling in love. . . . The culture of the Western Enlightenment is better. (italics in the original)

... read it all.

Not only are not all cultures equal, some are cancer.

What Brilliant Attack Ads Look Like

The Inch by Inch Majority

CTV, CBC, FOX, CNN et al: The Incubators of Foreign Policy

It should be noted that we are fighting now in Libya not because of mass slaughter but because of the threat of mass slaughter. Let's say what the president's supporters can't say and his opponents won't say: If the slaughter had happened, those pictures would have been very bad politically for the president.

Our foreign policy is increasingly driven by the needs of television programmers. I think I'll repeat that: Our foreign policy is more and more being dictated by the people who do the rundowns for tv new shows.

I tend to agree with Peggy, but, what must be remembered is that all of our political parties today, save the Tea Party in the United States, claim that they are organizations of "action" that can deliver solutions not through stepping away, but through government involvement. In other words, when Government claims to be the solution, can the media be blamed for demanding such?

Giuliani: This Administration Doesn't Know What It's Doing

VDH: March Madness

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The Inch by Inch Majority

Welcome to Operation Unified Protector

We aren't kidding ... "Unified Protector!" (Maybe it's just an April Fool's Joke)

Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, commander of Operation Unified Protector, said NATO aircraft had flown 90 missions since the alliance took charge.

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