The Editorial Times.ca: September 2006



The Editorial Times.ca

"The Thorn of Dissent is the Flower of Democracy"©

or, if you'd rather...
"Its my blog and I'll pry if I want to, pry if I want to"
with apologies to Leslie Gore




"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” CS Lewis.


©Chris Muir

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Arrogance of Ignorance, the Ignorance of Arrogance

By Paul F. Coppin

The Dawson College tragedy, like all highly public events, and particularly those involving kids, galvanise otherwise quiet people into putting their thoughts and fears to paper. Letters to the editor and op-ed pieces flow like candy on Hallowe'en.

In the case of the Dawson College event, firearms owners across Canada flooded media outlets with letters and emails, hoping to offset the inevitable backlash simply because they were firearms owners, not because they had any connection to the events in Montreal. They knew they would not soon be disappointed; some lessons were indeed learned from the Ecole Polytechnique shootings in 1989.

The victims had hardly been removed from the crime scene before anti-firearms advocates, fragile politicians and ponderous media drones began their assessment of all of the things that were wrong with society and government that could have caused this horrible event. The shopping list of usuals such as education, parenting, video games, mass media, and disaffection were quickly offered up, and just as quickly tossed as imponderable. It became apparent that the obvious problem was socio-pathology, and guns. And since socio-pathology has too many syllables and requires an education to actually understand, reductio ad absurdum, the problem must be guns.

The media discussion about guns got off on a bad footing right at the beginning, with more than one national paper claiming one of the firearms, the Beretta Storm, was an automatic. Conjuring up Rambo-esque visions of the perpetrator spraying Montreal from a gun welded to the hip (according to the Coalition for Gun Control's website, this is how you use one), politicians and columnists began calling for the banning of all automatic firearms. Had any of them done their homework, they would have known that Canada has had them banned for a long time. In any case, had they done their homework, they would have learned that the Beretta Storm is not an automatic, and cannot be easily made into one.

Media outlets can be cut a little slack as news is breaking. Certainly, like the fog of war, the fog of media is thickest when everyone is scrambling to find out what's going on, and who cares the most.

But days later, when the event has settled, and the facts have mostly emerged, one might expect that journalistic and editorial integrity would tighten up, and accuracy in reporting and editing would rise to a level demanded by principles of fairness and balance.

And yet, this is not happening. Contract writers such as Janet Bagnell of the Montreal Gazette are given free reign, without benefit of knowledge of the subject, to denigrate the readers who write to correct their assertions (and I am only using Janet as an example, she is far from unique). From the writings of many columnists and editorialists, especially those who have taken a position calling for bans of this and that, it is clear that even a modicum of knowledge about Canada's gun laws is lacking. Many still do not know, or understand, or even care about, the difference between licensing and registration. Worse still, there is an appalling lack of knowledge about firearms themselves. To someone who actually knows something about firearms, the media ping-pong game over the idea of banning semi-automatics is absurd. Promoting public policy based on ignorance is hardly a responsible position for ostensibly responsible journalists.

But the height of editorial arrogance is achieved when the op-eds written by supposed intellectuals begin to appear. Pompous writing by individuals who have no particular academic credentials in the subject, but who do have a personal viewpoint. Predictably, their discourse starts with a concocted absolute and then argues that their viewpoint is the only valid one, ending with a reference to their station in life, as if it validates their personal opinion. That someone is a Management specialist, an Information Technology specialist, or professor, hardly elevates their opinion to the level of "authority" in a discussion unrelated to their specialty. Never have I, nor anyone I know, having submitted a well-reasoned and researched letter to the editor, been asked what I do for a living, to validate the opinion expressed.

It is small wonder that there is so much angst in the Parliamentary press gallery and mainstream media in general these days. The jig is up. Enough of the masses have now been sufficiently educated to recognise the smell of fresh horse-pucky when they encounter it.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Dawson College - In the aftermath

By Paul F. Coppin

The horror of the events at Dawson College in Montreal create an incalculable shock to the psyche of Canadians, a somewhat smug society that believes, on balance, "these things don't happen here". But they do. They did in Montreal in 1989, at Ecole Polytechnique, they did in Taber, Alberta.

With typical predictability, both sides of the gun control debate felt obliged to marshall their troops to deal with the expected onslaught that was sure to follow. And follow it did. The MSM blasted the landscape with speculation, half-truths, and outright lies. Editorialists continued to demonstrate their poor to non-existent knowledge of both firearms and Canada's present firearms laws.

The gun control crowd smelled blood and once again trotted out their manufactured and manipulated statistics, innuendo about gun owners, and fanciful schemes to save the world. Firearms owners were once again dragged into a debate that did not and does not, have anything to do with them. The gun control crowd stood atop the tragic events and defended the registry, even though not a single official could find any way the registry could have, and did not, prevent this event. Family members involved were understandably upset and vocal.

Because this was Montreal, again, Quebec, again, firearms owners across the country felt the weight of personal guilt being heaped upon their shoulders by the now professional victims of Ecole Polytechnique and their sycophants. Liberal Premier Charest, in the throes of a collapsing government, promised to maximize his advantage of the tragedy by going to Ottawa to pound on Stephen Harper to keep the useless long gun registry, because, well, because he needs the votes in Quebec to survive. Everybody admits the registry could not, did not, save the children. But the registry was never created to save children. It was created to save politicians.

The tragedy at Dawson College is not about guns. It is not about gun control. The tragedy of Dawson College is about disaffected youth, sociopathology and mental illness. Its about unpredictability in the human condition, which we all know lies out there amongst us.

Once again, the practice of insisting firearms owners carry the guilt, by demanding ever more ineffectual legislation, as before, is immoral. The fault lies not with them or their tools. If blame has to be distributed, there are a myriad other social targets to look to, but firearms owners are not among them.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Nine, Eleven... 2,996 ... numbers for the 21st century


24 Canadians lost in the twin towers, 9/11, linked to their tributes from the 2996 Project, lest we forget:

Michael Arczynski * Garnet Bailey * David Barkway * Ken Basnicki * Jane Beatty * Cindy Connolly * Arron Dack * Christine Egan * Michael Egan * Albert Elmarry * Meredith Ewart * Peter Feidelberg * Alexander Filipov * Ralph Gerhardt * Stuart Lee * Mark Ludvigsen * Bernard Mascarenhas * Colin McArthur * Michel Pelletier * Donald Robson * Roy Santos * Vladimir Tomasevic * Chantal Vincelli * Debbie Williams.

H/T to JYC for the list (You know who you are. Thank you.)


Reuters: Jeff Christensen


Maybe after Jack Layton and the rest of the NDP children finish strutting around being sanctimonious, pompous, and just plain stupid in Quebec City, they can take a moment to look at that picture. Taken 15 minutes after the first tower came down.

15 minutes later, they were gone too.

The terror and the horror of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, can never be allowed to fade. There is no negotiation, no appeasement of ideologies that can erase or legitimize the actions of terrorists that day. The 24 Canadians lost, and the 2,972 others representing 90 nations of the world, bear silent witness to the fight that must be fought.

Afghanistan, Jack. There's a reason why Canadians are there.
Take the time to browse the links and reflect on 9/11. Do take the time.

For everyone else who understands why we fight for democracy and freedom, who dares to be reminded of the reason for the iconic phrase "9/11", the sites below offer an especially poignant journey back...

THE BLACK DAY


Dedicated to the Men and Women...

FDNY -Blood of Heroes

The first, a photographic memorial, the others, video tributes worthy of viewing... Lengthy. Bring a hanky.

Regardless of your perspective on MM, Michelle Malkin has an expanding remembrance underway on her site, as does Pajamas Media.

The Victims...

World Trade Center, The Pentagon, Flight 11, Flight 175,
Flight 77, Flight 93

The 2996 Project

... is a web effort to recognize and honour each of the victims of 9/11. 3,013 people have signed up to prepare a tribute to each one of the 9/11 souls lost to the tragedy. Browse the list to know the real loss. I am pleased to say that I have confirmed all of the links to the Canadian tributes now. A very heartfelt thank you for all of those in the 2996 Project who took the time to care, and participate. The tributes are to remain on their hosts site until Midnight September 11, 2006. I hope that perhaps those that can, will leave them a bit longer so that family and friends may have an opportunity to find them. God bless you all.


Saturday, September 09, 2006

Quick Picks ... items from the feeds...


Stephen Gordon: Live blogging from the NDP convention Laval economist Stephen Gordon attempting to blog from the NDP moonfest. His observer status didn't get him far either, so he too went home to view on CPAC what he couldn't get in to hear. Other revelations...

globeandmail.com : 50 changes, 5 years later

Report: 3 Spanish Muslims Recruited for Jihad Every Month

Pope Assails Canadian Laws

MSM getting it wrong, again. Vol. IV


I just noticed this morning that the Globe & Mail is now pumping advertisements down its RSS feeds. Telemarketing any hour of the day, endless, mindless, useless spam on email systems. Maybe we need to ask companies if they are paying for advertising on MSM RSS feeds, If so, maybe we should take our business elsewhere. Nah, won't happen.

The headline crying to be written...


NDP Should Endorse the KKK: Gary Doer

Manitoba Premier Gary Doer got delegates fired up with his warning that in the last 12 months, Canada has moved backwards on the "3 Ks — kids, Kelowna and Kyoto."

Doesn't anybody in the NDP think?

"Splendid chap, this new man of yours, Stephen Howard."


Mark Steyn offers his take on Australia's PM John Howard's position "of our way or the highway" to immigrant dissidents causing ruckus', and laments the lack of same from the Big Boys like Bush and Blair, in Mark Steyn: Straight-talking PM | Opinion | The Australian:

John Howard was quoted approvingly on a US radio show last week. Big deal, you say. He's a prime minister; what does he care if some rinky-dink talk-jockey recycles a couple of sound bites?

Well, the radio host in question was Rush Limbaugh, and Rush has more listeners than there are Australians. That's to say, about 25million or so listeners, which is more than the number of Australians in Australia and Lebanon combined.

Why would gazillions of American radio listeners appreciate a line from Howard? Because he says things that none of their own leaders ever quite say. Last week it was the stuff about Muslim immigrants needing to learn English and making sure they're cool with this equal-rights-for-women business. The soi-disant arrogant Texas cowboy rarely shoots from the lip like that. Instead, he says things such as: "Freedom is the desire of every human heart."
[...]
Just as the advantage of federalism is the local experimentation it allows, so on everything from basic post-9/11 temperament to regional military interventions the present Aussie Government is a kind of useful pilot scheme for the rest of the Anglosphere. I only wish the ghastly, intellectually barren British Conservatives would learn a thing or two from it.

As for my own nation, I've left Canada out of this discussion but I'm modestly encouraged by small signs of Australianisation. Our new Prime Minister was in London recently and a couple of local Tories told me how impressed they were: "Splendid chap, this new man of yours, Stephen Howard." Close enough. When a Canadian PM gets mistaken for John Howard's cousin, that's higher praise than we've had in decades.


Click on the link above for the whole story.

NDP: Afghan politician says NATO mission has not brought more peace to the region.


The NDP is becoming an interesting anachronism it appears, much like the communist parties of the cold war days gone by. Odd, I wouldn't have thought about the party in that way, until I read the draft policy documents (see post below) for the convention this weekend in Quebec City. Some of that stuff is right out of the 1950s.

Stephen Taylor has begun "arm's length" coverage of the convention this morning on his website, and indicates that, contrary to the norm in Canadian conventions, the NDP has closed the policy discussions to observers and the press. So, the party that prides itself on its inclusiveness (the liberals only appropriated that term for political gain. What? Surprised?) is excluding all but the party faithful from discussions about what they stand for. That too, right out of the 1950s. I hope the irony is not lost that the party that ostensibly believes that they know what's right for the common people, aren't prepared to let the common people know how they come to what they believe.

But back to the title. Malalai Joya, "the youngest member of the Afghan National Assembly", is appearing at the convention to support Taliban Jack's position on Afghanistan. In an op-ed from the convention on ndp.ca, Ms. Joya is described as:

... elected in 2005 in Farah province, has worked to protect women's rights and is the head of the Organization of Promoting Afghan Women's Capabilities. She brought a clear message: foreign troops in Afghanistan have not achieved any fundamental changes.

"When the entire nation is living under the shadow of the gun and warlordism, how can its women enjoy very basic freedoms?" asked Joya. "Contrary to the propaganda in certain Western media, Afghan women and men are not 'liberated' at all."
Ok, I hope the irony is not lost here either. If not for the U.S. and its coalition allies, and the continuing efforts of Canada and NATO, Ms. Joya, not only would not be sitting in the "Afghan National Assembly", stating her views on the evils of liberation, she likely would be dead for having them, or at the very least, very silent. Unless of course, she didn't live in Afghanistan during the Taliban era.

Not missing an opportunity to offer the requisite Bush-bash:

I think that if Canada really wants to help Afghan people and bring positive changes, they must act independently, rather than becoming a tool for implementing the policies of the US government."
Policies like "ridding Afghanistan of the Taliban so that she can return home and run in an election, sit in a parliament and continue fighting for the rights of Afghanis", I think she means, right?

She finishes with the dumbest statement yet for a supposed world savvy politician:
"No nation can donate liberation to another nation."
Perhaps not to ex-pat Afghanis. Apparently, like the president of Iran and Ernst Zundel, she believes the Holocaust, World Wars I and II didn't happen. There are a few million families around the world which might take exception to that statement as they remember their lost sons and daughters, and walk about the hectares of white-crossed gravesites around Europe. But then, that's what's left from the 1950s, too.

Update: The Globe and Mail, reporting on the NDP's successful convention endorsement of Layton's call for a pullout, is quoted as saying that the speech the night before by Joya "clearly influenced delegates", as she apparently stated that average Afghans view the U.S. actions in the country as simply having the effect of replacing one group of "misogynist war lords" with another.

So Jack appears to be content in the knowledge that Canadian troops are not only terrorists, but "misogynists" as well. Ms. Joya is certainly a piece of work. A strident muslim feminist who would have no platform in her own country, if not for those foreign "misogynists" who provided her that opportunity. Maybe Jack is right. Canadians should pull out of Afghanistan and leave it to he and Ms. Joya to do the lecture and peace promotion tour there after they're gone. What a buffoon.

Friday, September 08, 2006

MSM getting it wrong, again, Vol. III

As reported by Reuters [suspend belief here] and printed by La Presse in Montreal, Radio Canada reporter and veteran Ottawa correspondent Christine St-Pierre has apparently been suspended by the taxpayer funded French language arm of the CBC, for disobeying an internal memo concerning personal opinions. Her transgression? Sending words of support to the troops in Afghanistan:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - One of Canada's top television reporters has been suspended from her job for praising the country's increasingly troubled military mission in Afghanistan, the company said on Friday.

Christine St-Pierre, a veteran Ottawa correspondent for French-language public broadcaster Radio-Canada, wrote an open letter to Canada's 2,300 troops telling them to ignore mounting criticism of the mission.
[...]
"We owe you all our respect and our unfailing support ... dear soldiers, your tears are not in vain, your tears are brave," St-Pierre wrote in the letter, which Montreal's La Presse newspaper published on Thursday.

Radio-Canada suspended her for breaching internal regulations that stipulate employees are not allowed to express their opinions on controversial issues.

"Ms. St-Pierre infringed a number of Radio-Canada's journalistic rules ... she has been relieved of her functions for an indeterminate period," said spokesman Marc Pichette, adding that the broadcaster was investigating what had happened.

St-Pierre told La Presse she knew she had gone too far and said she could no longer be objective when it came to reporting on events in Afghanistan.
[...]
As has been pointed out in other commentary, the CBC is a child of the federal government, which approves and supports the mission. There is nothing controversial about the Afghan mission for the CBC, right? Right?

Update: Stephen Taylor takes on this topic and takes a run at Tony Burman, News Chief at the CBC, making the point that the bias continues, and that in the mundo bizarro of the CBC, its just the opinion that is not consistent with corporate bias that's not OK.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Pakistan Cedes Territory to the Taliban, Al-Qaida?

The Pakistani English language website DAWN is reporting that Pakistan has signed a peace accord with the tribal region Waziristan, a deal that some western analysts are saying spells major trouble for the coalition forces in Afghanistan. Waziristan, a long narrow territory along the Afghan border, is a tribal region with a long history of militant activity and believed to be an enclave for the Taliban, and, the concern is, for Al-Qaida as well.

While the agreement calls for "no cross-border movement for militant activity in neighbouring Afghanistan", it is widely believed by western observers that this will not be enforced. Pakistan has indicated that it will not tolerate western incursions into this region. Pakistan is to remove its soldiers from the tribal region, while the elders, Mujahideen and Utmanzai tribe would "ensure that no-one attacked law-enforcement personnel and state property."

Western observer, Bill Roggio offered this concern:

"With the threat of the Pakistani Army removed in North and South Waziristan, the Taliban and al-Qaeda can now consolidate power and focus their efforts on attacking coalition forces in Afghanistan, as well as expand further into the greater North West Frontier Province."
Newsday comments that:
The accord asserts that "there will be no cross-border traffic for military activities," but contains the loophole that "for traffic ... for trade, business and family visits, there will be no restriction, according to the customs and traditions" of the border area. In practice, the ethnic Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border cross with little attention paid by Pakistani border guards, who traditionally are members of those same tribes.

Under the deal, Pakistan agreed that tribal paramilitary forces, rather than army troops, will handle border control duties, as they did before the recent army offensive. The poorly trained, underpaid paramilitaries have proved no barrier to Taliban infiltration past the border, U.S. troops say.
This perspective runs sharp contrast to the Times-Online report that sees the agreement as an important marker between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the control of Taliban and Al-Qaida movements.

Additional commentary by Steven Schippert at Threats Watch indicates that Musharraf of Pakistan has had to do some major smoozing to convince Karzai and NATO that there remains a will in Pakistan to deal with the Taliban and Al-Qaida.

Quote of the Day

A gentleman of the internet going by the name of Suputin, has put the NDP resolution:

"The NDP rejects the use of military intervention as a tool of peace"
in proper perspective:

"The only problem with that is the bad guys of the world haven't rejected military intervention as a tool for war."

Eek! Another good one, from WallyJ on SDA:

"I don't see why people are getting upset with the NDP comparing our troops to terrorists. Once the dippers convince themselves that the soldiers are terrorists, it won't be long before they start backing them."

Fertile minds these days...

"Rocket Ride"


H/T to Cjunk for this gem:

Ethics?...How Do You Spell That...?


The Globe and Mail this morning is reporting that a chunk of McGuinty's Ontario Liberal cabinet is apparently giving up their day jobs to stickhandle Michael Ignatieff's "its me or I go home" bid for the federal Liberal leadership. Quote the G&M:

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan and Public Infrastructure Renewal Minister David Caplan will be co-chairs of his Ontario campaign, while Environment Minister Laurel Broten, who shares the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore with Mr. Ignatieff, was appointed last week as adviser on Ontario issues.

Education Minister Sandra Pupatello is expected to announce tomorrow that she is also supporting Mr. Ignatieff.

What? They're not giving up their day jobs to chair his campaign? So, lets see if I understand this... sitting cabinet minster's are going to be using public resources (you don't think so? scheduling, rescheduling, phone calls, memos, meetings... all after hours, right? What's "after hours" for a cabinet minister...?), which just happen to be in the control of, lets see, oh, the provincial Liberals. Ahh, but that's different right? How? There is at least one nepotistic link:

Ontario Liberal MPP Tim Peterson is also supporting Mr. Ignatieff. He is the brother of David Peterson, a former Ontario premier and a national co-chair for Mr. Ignatieff's campaign.

[and chief negotiator (if you can call it that] of the Caledonia debacle].

It must be just me. I always believed, my daddy alway taught me, to physically and intellectually keep an arm's length between issues that have the slightest possibility of creating an ethical disconnect, regardless of how well I could actually keep the issues apart. It was the right thing, the correct thing, to do. People needed to know, and to feel comfortable with the idea, that the possibility of impropriety was acknowledged, and dealt with.

From adscam, through Caledonia and a huge list of other areas, the Liberals do not appear to have any trace of the integrity gene left in the party. Not a molecule. DNA test negative. All politics, all the time. Their only apparent reason to be in office, is,well, to be in office. Live the perks. Collect the entitlements. Take their rightful place on the throne.

 It must be so difficult to have to live life as royalty-in-waiting.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Afghan mission is not a failure - Omar Samad


In Part 2 of The Afghan mission is not a failure, Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad offers his perspective on the importance and role of Canadian and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Ambassador Samad:

Pulling out of Afghanistan, or abandoning the peace-building policies that ensure my country won't return to its pre-9/11 failing-state status, is tantamount to capitulating to terrorist groups. That is not acceptable to Afghans. The world turned its back on Afghanistan in the 1990s once it lost its strategic Cold War significance, and this helped to turn it into a haven for extremists and terrorists. It would be a strategic blunder if the debate about the country's future became a proxy ideological battleground.

We are not losing in Afghanistan. We are successfully preventing a resurgence of extremist forces in order to provide better opportunities for millions of poor people. The Afghan case is not a mediation case between two contending factions. Simplifying the context by calling for peace talks between an elected government and heavily-armed gangs of militant school-burners, drug-runners and suicide-attackers will not resolve the immediate challenges in southern Afghanistan. It might make it worse for everyone in the longer term if we allow serious human rights violators, terrorist agents and fanatics with a very poor governance record to return to power.
[...]
Contrary to ill-founded views that this is the U.S. President's war, and in spite of the fact that Afghans were resisting the terrorist regime alone before 9/11, the international community is constructively involved in Afghanistan at the request of the Afghan people, and under a United Nations mandate. There was no argument establishing the links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001. Since then, more than 70 nations have committed billions of dollars of aid and security assistance to help us restore stability, and help rebuild the country.
[...]
While the rest of Afghanistan is experiencing relative normalcy after three decades of turmoil, the provinces adjacent to the tribal regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are targets of terrorist and insurgent attacks by a force of new and former Taliban and foreign militants.

Using terror-like tactics, these infiltrating insurgents, hold villagers hostage, threaten or bribe farmers, kill teachers, doctors, clerics, tribal leaders, aid workers, road-builders, and oppress women and schoolgirls. In the process, they also attack NATO and Afghan army forces to influence Western evening news reports and prevent us from creating an environment conducive to better economic and security conditions.
[...]

Log on to the Globe & Mail to read the whole commentary.

Taliban Jack needs to leave Canadian international policy to our professionals, allies and affected representatives. Demonstrating his ignorance of the fundamentals of international intervention in peacemaking/peacekeeping only reinforces his unsuitability to lead a government charged with such important responsibilities. While Jack and the NDP may have a role to play ensuring Grandma gets looked after in her old age, he and they are woefully inadequate for any serious consideration in the political arena and the world stage.

The Afghan mission is not a failure - Lew MacKenzie


The Globe & Mail has responded to the Taliban Jack flap, er, flap Jack, er, anyway, with commentary by Lewis MacKenzie, retired Canadian Forces major-general, and former peacekeeper/maker/boots-boss in Bosnia, and in part 2, by the Afghan ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad.

Major-General MacKenzie:

As the leader of a party that has little chance of governing the country, the NDP's Jack Layton can accept the political risk of holding up a mirror to the government's decisions and occasionally acting as our national conscience. On the subject of Canada's role in Afghanistan, however, I fear he is dead wrong and am left to wonder if he is following the polls and playing domestic politics on the backs of our soldiers.

Mr. Layton says that he and the NDP support our soldiers but question the wisdom and achievability of NATO's mission in Afghanistan. And, having said that, he goes on to say the mission is the wrong mission for Canada and is, at the very least, unclear. I can only assume Mr. Layton's call for a withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2007, to pursue more traditional Canadian roles involving mediation and negotiation, is based on a widely held myth that we are better than the rest of the 192 nations in the United Nations at the dated concept of "peacekeeping."

[...]

To suggest, as Mr. Layton does, that we should pull out of the Afghan mission next year and return to our more "traditional" roles ignores one compelling fact. There will be no significant capability for any nation to carry out those "traditional" roles of nation-building in southern Afghanistan until those who are committed to stopping such undertakings are removed from the equation.

In other words, by leaving, we would be saying to the remaining 36 nations on the ground in Afghanistan, "Hey guys, this is getting pretty difficult. We have decided to leave and go home, but don't worry, when the rest of you have put down this insurrection and things are peaceful, we will return and offer our vastly superior skills in putting countries back together. So please, call us as soon as the shooting stops -- for good."

Log on to the Globe for the full story and related news.

Politics/Cartoons - Where the line is drawn... [Pt.3]

Selected excerpts of what the non-verbal observers are writing about these days...


©Calgary Sun, September 6, 2006

Parasites on the Body Politic


The story Troops acting 'like terrorists?' by John Ivison of the National Post, of one of the draft resolutions to be debated at the NDP convention in Quebec City this weekend, belies fundamental characteristics seen throughout the draft resolutions - naivete, irrational hostility, self-serving smugness, in direct contrast to the purported "values" of the NDP.

Mr Ivison writes:

Canada's troops in Afghanistan have been "acting like terrorists, destroying communities, killing and maiming innocent people", according to a resolution that will be voted on by New Democrats at the party's convention in Quebec City this weekend.

The resolution is one of 104 proposals on international affairs from local riding associations that will be presented at the convention. Others suggest Canada withdraw from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement, while one riding association proposes a freeze on trade with Israel until the "occupation of Palestinian lands" is ended.

The Afghan mission was the subject of a number of proposed resolutions, all calling for the withdrawal of Canadian troops. "The Canadian occupation is propping up a regime composed of barbarous warlords who are little better than the Taliban," says one riding association.

Many of the rest of the resolutions deal with the transfer of wealth from governments (taxpayers) and industries producing the wealth to, as the U.N. likes to call them, "non-actors", individuals or groups who have no direct, or indirect contribution to the creation of that wealth. To be fair, a social conscience for those unable to participate is an appropriate social policy, but simply to disingenously redistribute wealth without an appreciate of its origin, is, as the title says, parasitic.

But the resolution by the Nanaimo-Cowichan riding association comparing Canada's soldiers to terrorists goes over the top. Rabid hatred for George Bush by unsophisticated party hacks does not form the foundation for governance by a national party. The pain of conflict in Afghanistan is the pain of birth of democracy, fought again and again against those who would deny it. To sit smugly thousands of miles away in the LaLa land of the west coast, and dare to compare those who would endure the pain of that birth with the evil that would snuff it out, while basking in the luxury such pain has provided, is to denigrate the entire premise the NDP think they stand for. A callous, cheap slap in face of every soldier, every veteran, every family, every Canadian who has shared the pain. The ability to even consider the "social conscience" that the NDP prattles on about page after page, has only ever come by grim force and determination. The New Democratic Party needs to grow up. Its smug sanctimony is borne not of the sacrifices of its members, but by whining spoiled children feeding off the travails of others.

Update:
In the face of Blog/MSM outrage across the country, the NDP riding association of Nanaimo-Cowichan has agreed to tone down the rhetoric of the resolution, but its not clear that there's much sincerity in the conciliation.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The NDP Self-Destruct Manual, now online...


Stephen Taylor apparently has the rest of the NDP Policy Document, even though the NDP have tried to keep a lock on it until at least the weekend.
Fascinating reading. The quality of BC bud must have really dropped over the summer.

WHEREAS the small proportion of women in the House of Commons reflects the inequality of women in society and political parties have to date been unable to provide a means or mechanism to resolve the gross inequality of representation; and
WHEREAS gender balance achieved by having an equal number of men and women would provide greater democracy and lead to policies and laws which would remove barriers to equality of men and women in society;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the New Democratic Party of Canada supports the principle of representation by two members per constituency, one woman and one man.

MISSISSAUGA-ERINDALE NDP


Was going to give you a couple more but Stephen's blog is now in full download mode. LOL! (please remain on the line, your call is very important to us... :)



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Taliban Jack - Tucking Tail & Running; or, "The Buffoon Gambit"


Jack Layton's ill-considered remarks over the Labour Day weekend continue to draw criticism around the MSM and the blogosphere. Debris Trail at Cjunk reports on the latest peaceful negotiating position from the Taliban. Quoting Mullah Dadullah, Chief military Commander of Taliban fighters:

"From today, I want to tell journalists that if in future they use wrong information from coalition forces or NATO we will target those journalists and media,'' Mullah Dadullah said. ``We have the Islamic right to kill these journalists and media."

It would be interesting to see how Taliban Jack's negotiating strategy, now known as the "Buffoon Gambit", will work with Mr. Dadullah. We encourage Tal-Jack to make haste forthwith and inform the good mullah that its not nice to kill people. They can both sit down together and commiserate on how they're both so misunderstood.

Debris Trail's note concludes with the following observation:

Thanks Jack; I’m sure they toasted you with tea and murmurs of approval in the Taliban caves along the Afghan-Pakistan border. In the mean time, truly honorable men are fighting and dying in the name of freedom and democracy. While Jack plays the socialist hero at home; our true heroes are doing genuine socialist work in Afghanistan by ridding some of the poorest people on earth of the very tyrants who would hold them down forever.


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Once Again, McGuinty Gives Ontarioans the Finger


The following, from the pages of CaledoniaWakeupCall, should arouse some interest in Ontario. Apparently, terrorism and insurrection can get you free heat and water along with a new house and land, compliments of the non-terrorist, non-insurrecting taxpayer.

This is an outrage! McGuinty is now saying to the people of Ontario - ok, we've just further used your tax dollars to reward insurrection by underwriting the cost of it to the insurrectors, so, f*ck you, suck it up.

Taxpayers pay for Hydro & Water for Criminals

From: MARIE TRAINER [mailto:mtrainer@haldimandcounty.on.ca]
Sent: August 24, 2006 1:04 PM
To: Burke, John (MAH); Smith, Neil (EDT)
Cc: Lloyd Payne (E-mail)
Subject: hydro bill at DCE

A letter was sent to Dennis Brown asking numerous questions

Normally when a property is sold Haldimand Hydro receives the name and address of the new owner so they can start sending the bills to the proper place

As of now no bills have been paid and there for services should be cut off

It is my understanding all services are to remain on but it does place the county and Haldimand Hydro in a awkward position as in all other cases services would be turned off and an extra charge for reconnection would be incurred

These bills do need to be kept current

Thank you both for your attention to the above matter

Marie

The following is an email from the Ontario Government to Marie Trainer:

From: Burke, John (MAH) [mailto:John.Burke@ontario.ca]
Sent: August 24, 2006 1:23 PM
To: MARIE TRAINER
Cc: Smith, Neil (EDT); BILL PEARCE; Layton, Carol (PIR)
Subject: RE: hydro bill at DCE


Hi Marie:

I thought I had made it clear at a past Liaison Table meeting that the Province had taken over responsibility for water and hydro services to the DCE property. As you know, we are the rightful owner, so it is our responsibility to pay the bills as we do on all property we own. Because we are the owner, it will be up to us to decide if and when services are to be discontinued or adjusted in any way. I hope this clarifies the Provinces position on this matter. Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions.

Thanks, John


The following excerpts from the Criminal Code of Canada should be required reading for all residents of Ontario. If Marie Trainer has not yet "read the riot act" to site occupiers, she should do so immediately, so that the prosecution of the Attorney General and the leadership of the OPP can start forthwith.

Unlawful Assemblies and Riots

Unlawful assembly

63. (1) An unlawful assembly is an assembly of three or more persons who, with intent to carry out any common purpose, assemble in such a manner or so conduct themselves when they are assembled as to cause persons in the neighbourhood of the assembly to fear, on reasonable grounds, that they

(a) will disturb the peace tumultuously; or

(b) will by that assembly needlessly and without reasonable cause provoke other persons to disturb the peace tumultuously.

Lawful assembly becoming unlawful

(2) Persons who are lawfully assembled may become an unlawful assembly if they conduct themselves with a common purpose in a manner that would have made the assembly unlawful if they had assembled in that manner for that purpose.

Exception

(3) Persons are not unlawfully assembled by reason only that they are assembled to protect the dwelling-house of any one of them against persons who are threatening to break and enter it for the purpose of committing an indictable offence therein.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 64.

Riot

64. A riot is an unlawful assembly that has begun to disturb the peace tumultuously.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 65.

Punishment of rioter

65. Every one who takes part in a riot is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 66.

Punishment for unlawful assembly

66. Every one who is a member of an unlawful assembly is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 67.

Reading proclamation

67. A person who is

(a) a justice, mayor or sheriff, or the lawful deputy of a mayor or sheriff,

(b) a warden or deputy warden of a prison, or

(c) the institutional head of a penitentiary, as those expressions are defined in subsection 2(1) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, or that person’s deputy,

who receives notice that, at any place within the jurisdiction of the person, twelve or more persons are unlawfully and riotously assembled together shall go to that place and, after approaching as near as is safe, if the person is satisfied that a riot is in progress, shall command silence and thereupon make or cause to be made in a loud voice a proclamation in the following words or to the like effect:

Her Majesty the Queen charges and commands all persons being assembled immediately to disperse and peaceably to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business on the pain of being guilty of an offence for which, on conviction, they may be sentenced to imprisonment for life. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 67; 1994, c. 44, s. 5.

Offences related to proclamation

68. Every one is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life who

(a) opposes, hinders or assaults, wilfully and with force, a person who begins to make or is about to begin to make or is making the proclamation referred to in section 67 so that it is not made;

(b) does not peaceably disperse and depart from a place where the proclamation referred to in section 67 is made within thirty minutes after it is made; or

(c) does not depart from a place within thirty minutes when he has reasonable grounds to believe that the proclamation referred to in section 67 would have been made in that place if some person had not opposed, hindered or assaulted, wilfully and with force, a person who would have made it.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 69.

Neglect by peace officer

69. A peace officer who receives notice that there is a riot within his jurisdiction and, without reasonable excuse, fails to take all reasonable steps to suppress the riot is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 70.


The forced sale of the land to the Liberal government as a means to get around the provision of section 63.(3)cannot be allowed to stand as a precedent for dealing with an insurrection by any group who has has declared themselves to be a distinct and sovereign nation within Canada.

The Six Nations Confederacy, through its occupation and the events that unfolded from the outset, are clearly in violation of sections 49 (Acts intended to alarm Her Majesty or break public peace) and 51 (Intimidating parliament or legislature) of the Criminal Code, irrespective of whether or not the province has purchased the land, now crown land. If the province will not do its solemn duty, then the the Federal government, through the RCMP, has no choice but to proceed with enforcement of these sections. That negotiations are underway is immaterial, as there is no relevence to property ownership accorded in either section.

Failure of the government to act begs the question the legitimacy of the government and of the OPP. A failure of enforcement action against the occupiers may compel citizens to act on their own behalf, a situation no one wants to see, but may soon become inevitable. Action of the OPP against the citizens of Caledonia in such a circumstance could be construed as a repudiation of the democratic authority of the electorate. As a consequence, the provincial government surrenders its legitimacy, and the Lieutenant Governor should be petitioned to call for the immediate dissolution of this present leglislature.

Monday, September 04, 2006

"What a Buffoon"


So concludes Licia Corbella of the Calgary Sun at the end of her September 3, 2006 column Taliban would laugh at Jack, in which she succinctly reviews the ridiculous notion put forward by Jack Layton that an Afghani peace can simply be negotiated with the Taliban like one makes menu choices for dinner. Either Jack is incredibly naive, incredibly stupid, or incredibly crass, or, all of these. But then, its easy when you will never have to stand on the courage of your convictions, or indeed, any courage at all, to pontificate about how and what the world, and Canadians in particular, should do to find peace in rough places.

Today is Labour Day in Canada and the US. A day to celebrate and honour the toil and sacrifice that ordinary people make for the betterment of their societies and their families. This weekend, today, halfway around the world, extra-ordinary Canadians have died or been injured "in the workplace" toiling and sacrificing so that families and societies may be better off then they are. Jack the buffoon and the NDP don't feel their sacrifice is worth it. Jack thinks that they should come home. Jack thinks that the only Canadians worth supporting are those who are comfortably marching in parades today, safe in the arms of their families, happy to trade anecdotes about lousy employers, football games, happy to prep their kids for the first day of school tomorrow. Jack doesn't think our extra-ordinary Canadians halfway around the world should be there, making a better world for families and societies, that can only dream about prepping their kids for school, ball games, and safety in the arms of their families. Jack doesn't think.

At some point, Canadians need to ask, "of what good is the New Democratic Party?" Millions are spent in support of Jack Layton, his wife, the legions of sycophants responsible for NDP's "Foreign Policy" document (courtesy Stephen Taylor), and you have to ask: "Why?" To provide a standard for rational people to compare to? To remind us that we could do worse than Stephen Harper, or even, the Liberals? Once upon a time, the New Democratic Party stood for the rights of workers in the labour movement, stood for honest brokerage of a fair exchange between labour and management for the spoils of progress and trade. Once upon a time the NDP would stand for human rights wherever they were threatened.

Jack thinks Canada should abandon the Afghanis to support his new friends in Southern Lebanon. His new friends in Southern Lebanon have a much more important need for Canada's extra-ordinary sons and daughters than the Afghanis. Jack knows this, because his new friends have told him so. Jack even sent someone to confirm this, and his new friends were glad to show him what they needed him to know.

And of course, since the NDP believes in a safe workplace, taking Canadians from the obviously unsafe society that is the lot of Afghanis makes sense. Much better they stand around in Lebanon, then work at risk in Afghanistan. Besides, the unsafe conditions in Afghanistan are the "employer's" problem, the government's, not the workers. We'll come back when the Afghani "employer" has fixed the unsafe working conditions. In the meantime, since Lebanon's new employer, the U.N., has said its safe to work in Lebanon, maybe that's where we should go. Fixing the lot of the Lebanese means mostly bulldozers, not too much risk there of Canadians getting killed fighting in defence of the Canadian values of freedom, justice, and Labour Day parades.

Corbella is right: what a buffoon.

To my friends working this Labour Day in Afghanistan, peace, stay safe. To paraphrase George Orwell - rough men stand at guard at night so the meek may sleep. Even Jack Layton.