24 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  6. Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Sept. 9. Interview with Louise Arbour, who makes some shocking comments.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/former-supreme-court-justice-embarks-on-the-next-phase-of-her-career-practising-law/article20487686/?page=all
    — Q: What is the number-one human rights issue in the world today?
    — Ms. Arbour: As a human rights lawyer the instinct is to say all rights are equal, there is no hierarchy of rights. Still, inequality captures not just the whole umbrella of discrimination but also economic disparities that are unjustifiable on any terms, between countries and within countries.
    This answer is absolutely disgraceful, in a number of ways.
    First of all, there are numerous countries on the planet in which people are still locked up or worse merely for speaking their mind, for opposing their government. Their fundamental rights are in serious jeopardy. Yet the answer she comes up with is “inequality”.
    Making matters much worse is the notion that economic disparity has anything to do with human rights. Economic inequality between individuals is mostly a result of effort inequality. And economic inequality between nations is largely a result of the richer nations adopting capitalism and the poorer ones socialism. In that case, the economic disparities are not only fully justified, they are inevitable.
    Then there is the idiotic notion that there is no “hierarchy of rights”. Of course there is! The right to life is at the top of the hierarchy, and from it are derived other rights such as freedom of speech, property rights, and so on. Only someone steeped in the fairy tale world of “group rights” such as women’s rights, gay rights, minority rights, etc., could claim that these rights are all “competing” and have to be “balanced”.
    Genuine rights have a hierarchy, and the trick is to figure out which one takes priority under which circumstances. One has the right to freedom of expression, but not necessarily to shout and scream in public, particularly at night. But if your block is holding a late-night party in the street, that would be different. And so on. Context is everything, but “balance” is an incorrect way of looking at it.
    (the next two questions appeared earlier in the transcript)
    — Q: What was the Supreme Court ruling you wrote that you’re proudest of?
    — Ms. Arbour: There’s a convention when you leave the court that you don’t comment on your judgments or the work of others. I think maybe the one that stayed in my mind was a dissent I wrote in Gosselin in Quebec on the right to welfare. It was my first introduction really to economic and social rights and their alleged absence from the framework of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was very novel, very challenging.
    — Q: Why do you say the alleged absence of social and economic rights?
    — Ms. Arbour: I wrote in Gosselin that Section 7, the right to life, liberty and security of the person, is the foundation of all rights. Not only civil and political rights but also economic, social and cultural rights. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they’re all united. It’s only after the Cold War and the 70s that there was a big fracture where the West embraced civil liberties, civil and political rights, and developing countries, China and Russia purported to prefer social and economic rights – the right to health, the right to education. I came to the conclusion that these rights are there, if you read the Charter in the full spirit and the full heritage on which it is built. Obviously this was not the prevailing view and still isn’t, I think.
    The Gosselin case, which dates from 2002, concerned a rule temporarily in place in Quebec whereby a person on welfare who was under age 30 could only receive a fraction (about one-quarter, I believe) of the benefits that others could. The Supreme Court upheld the rule, but the province soon discarded it anyway, after only about fifteen months in place.
    In general, governments should not discriminate. But many laws do so with regards to age, of necessity — age of majority, for example. There are no real principles regarding how a state spends other people’s money, except for a vague notion of “fairness”, and it’s hard to pinpoint whether a rule such as Quebec’s is “fair” or not. My sense is that, since it’s the adults who were responsible for tanking the province’s (or the country’s) economy, there is a strong element of blaming the victim in an administrative rule like this one, therefore it should not be adopted.
    Judge Arbour’s dissent in Gosselin was an attempt to establish the “right” to other people’s resources based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is a horrendous claim to make (and which she repeats in her answers here), since it can only lead to the destruction of all rights. Regrettably, when the Court released its disgraceful InSite decision in 2011, it essentially adopted Arbour’s reasoning in “principle”, if one can call it that. In practice, however, the notion has been adopted throughout Canada and the world for decades — which explains why we’re going to hell in a handbasket.
    Note also her comments about “social and economic rights – the right to health, the right to education” — as purportedly adopted by China and Russia! These two countries slaughtered millions of their own citizens, as she surely is aware. It isn’t much good to have a “right” to free health care when your government killed you in cold blood.
    Note also that she says, “… Section 7, the right to life, liberty and security of the person, is the foundation of all rights”. In other words, at the top of the hierarchy — thus she contradicts herself.
    The only genuine rights are individual rights. “Collective” rights are the road to ruin.

  9. Pat Condell exposes the common purpose behind the socially destructive political correctness which allowed 1400 children to be raped by politically correct rape gangs – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwAhrU_wTdA
    Cultural Marxists have a free mason type cult/network, a truly sinister mind control cult which uses Neuro Linguistic Programming of “trainees” in neo-Marxist social destabilization and transition, then networks them into key public service positions to act “outside authority” essentially creating a fabian socialist political elite activist network undermining democratic majority will in public policy making
    – more here – http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100191270/rotherham-hislop-common-purpose/

  11. and alberta isn’t the only destination for nova scotia-based oil/related workers.
    a friend been off-shore North Sea for years.

  13. Bombing the piss out the Middle East today is akin to looking for a burglar rapist who’s hiding in your house, down at the corner petrol station.

  15. I for one find comfort in the fact that a Nobel Peace Prize winner will be leading the military effort against Islamic State.
    From his speech last night:
    “Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic,” Obama said, speaking from the state floor of the White House residence. “No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim.”
    Well, that’s pretty obvious, don’t you think?

  16. I enjoyed watching that video about the B-29’s immensely,and have to reflect on how different the Commanding General, Curtis Lemay, was compared to today’s peacetime generals.
    And to contemplate how different the 1960’s Presidential ticket of Wallace/Lemay was from Obama/Biden.
    I can’t imagine one of today’s military leaders ordering the same as they did in 1945,ordering the P-51’s to strafe the hell out of everything after they’d completed their Bomber escort mission.

  17. Obama reminds me of 5 O’Clock Charlie from that MASH episode. I can picture the ISIS Jihadists betting where the one bomb in the desert each day is going to land.

  18. Wowser…I intentionally ‘skipped’ Obama’s message…if he actually said that would someone somewhere not be challenging him with facts?!
    Anyone?

  19. Stand With Israel and PM Harper.
    …-
    “Sun | Stephen Harper to address United Nations
    OTTAWA – Stephen Harper will address the United Nations General Assembly for the third time since becoming prime minister.”
    http://www.jacksnewswatch.com/
    …-
    “Scholar to UN: You Are ‘the Leading Global Purveyor of Anti-Semitism’
    Bayefsky says UN is ‘inciting murderous intolerance towards’ Jews”
    “A leading human rights advocate accused the United Nations and its member nations of being “the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism” and “inciting murderous intolerance towards” Jewish people during an unprecedented speech Monday at the international body’s headquarters in New York City.
    Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust (IHRH), stood before the U.N. and lambasted it for fanning the flames of global anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, according to a copy of her remarks.
    Bayefsky delivered her rebuke during an informal briefing on the threat anti-Semitism poses to international peace and security that was organized on the sidelines of the U.N. by the permanent mission of Palau.”
    http://freebeacon.com/issues/scholar-to-un-you-are-the-leading-global-purveyor-of-anti-semitism/

  20. Know your volunteer battalions (INFOGRAPHIC)
    There are several types of these troops: battalions of territorial defense, made up mostly of local residents to defend their land; special police battalions and the battalions subordinate to the National Guard, also part of the police troops. A few battalions are also under the jurisdiction of the army, and at least one – the Right Sector – is not formally part of any government troops, but coordination actions with commanders of the Anti-Terrorist Operation.
    Many of these battalions have emblems. The most common elements on the emblems are swords or other weapons, birds of prey or other noble animals, images of Cossacks and variations on the theme of the national symbol, the trident. Occasionally emblems carry slogans, such as “God is with us” on the emblem of the Aidar battalion.
    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/know-your-volunteer-battalions-infographic-363944.html
    The listing may be enlarged to better see the individual battalions, their commanders, etc. One of the insignia does have a symbol that could be construed as of fascist origin (first one on the left, second row). All the rest are very similar to heraldic symbols going back to the eraly 1900s.

  21. I should have added Ukrainian volunteer battalions. The one symbol that could appear to have a fascist symbol is the Azov battalion which is from the south-east end of Ukraine and at the opposite end of the north-west part of the country and from which allegations of fascist leanings have been made.

  24. “The B-29 was indeed one of the finest aircraft of it’s era.”
    I am so glad you are impressed.
    Certainly the most expensive and complex.
    At least as unreliable and dangerous as the Luftwaffe’s Heinkel 177 Griffin, for the same reason…..unreliable, fire prone engines.
    The difference was the US could produce these widow-makers like Hershey Bars while the Nazi’s couldn’t.
    In any video of B29 engine startup, note the constant presence of ground crew with fire extinguishers….in one video the ability to swap out engines fast….both absent with other aircraft types…..with the exception of proto-type and early production FW190’s.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation