The lead headline on Drudge this afternoon was most interesting:
Though in related news, Michael Ignatieff is all over the lingerie file. No word, as of yet, whether the Liberal Party of Canada has an official position on lingerie.
A CBC Poll Goes Horribly Wrong
In Question Period on Thursday, Minister of Human Resources & Social Development Diane Finley said, “It’s the Liberals who wanted to ensure that parents are forced to have other people raise their children. We do not believe in that.”
So we’d like to ask you,
– Yes
– No
– Unsure
Maybe if just a few more people voted “No”, two CBC polls in a row would mysteriously disappear!
h/t Steve
Update: Additional similar poll here h/t Bluetech
BC NDP Candidate on the Leading Edge
That would be none other than Adrian Dix, chief architect of former BC Premier Glen Clark’s successful plan to bankrupt the province, who has been deemed to be on “the leading edge of 18th-century socialism”. So says opponent George Abbott after Dix promised “higher taxes for corporations, [and] a proposed tax shift that sends shivers down the collective spine of the province’s business elite.”
Who would have ever guessed that a devout socialist, heretofore never known for any prowess as an inventor, has figured out how to travel back in time!
N.B. Lest you think otherwise, Comrade Dix has a legion of loyal [low rent*] Bolsheviks who get a thrill up their legs with such talk.
Canada’s Injustice System
If you’ve ever thrown up your hands in frustration thinking that the justice system across our country is more focused on helping criminals than protecting law-abiding citizens, know that you are not alone.
I just got back from the recording of the weekly TV show of my friend, David Berner. This week he was interviewing retired Justice Wallace Gilby Craig. To say that Justice Craig “gets it”, while so many other justice officials do not, would be the understatement of the century!
Though there are some specific Vancouver references, what Craig says will hit chords with Canadians from coast to coast. You can view the show here: Part 1 and Part 2.
Why “Progressives” Should Always Remain in Quotes
Here’s a most educational video from a recent “progressive” rally in Palm Springs, California. It was sponsored by Common Cause, The Ruckus Society, Greenpeace, Code Pink, the Progressive Democrats of America, and others. Watch the peace & love spew forth:
“Progressives” say the darndest things don’t they? It’s interesting how, when you let them open up their hearts & minds, you too often find absolute darkness and unparalleled hatred towards all who disagree with them. Plus, the added bonus of being a “progressive” is that you never have to say you’re sorry for … anything! Undoubtedly, if any of these folks were called out for what they’d said, they would have been “joking” and wondered why YOU don’t have a sense of humour.
Interesting Insight into the Situation in Egypt
Marshall Stocker is a most interesting and extremely well spoken American who runs a company called Freedom Economics. He has been living in Egypt but just returned to the U.S. a few days ago. Yesterday he was on Dennis Miller’s radio program and elucidated the audience with a first hand account of what has been happening in Egypt. It’s well worth a listen.
Related: It’s not easy being a journalist in Egypt these days.
Live video feed from BBC News
Update: I received a link to the following Facebook group from an Egyptian friend. Some of the photos & videos are quite disturbing but most interesting to see nonetheless.
Conservative Tree Huggers
Listen to Charles Adler and Mark Milke discuss the latter’s new column, Give
a hoot, in which he shreds to pieces the mythology that people on the Left are the
only ones capable of caring about the Earth. Related
Dick Morris: Teachers Unions are Directly to Blame for America’s Failed Education System
As a final post at the tail end of my guest blogging gig I would like to share this video I put together from a discussion yesterday between Dick Morris and Dennis Miller. Most of it is focused on America’s Failed Education System but I think there is direct relevance to what’s going on here in Canada. It seems that barely a week goes by when we don’t hear of one provincial teachers’ union or another doing something that is clearly not in the best interest of the students. In the interview, Morris pulls no punches in his disdain for American teachers’ unions and provides example after example why.
Related: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie proposes forfeiting raises and losing tenure for the worst unionized teachers. My opinion: A good start but in the REAL world NO ONE should have tenure.
A big thanks to Kate for the opportunity I was given and much thanks to all of you, the regular participants here at SDA. The conversations were most enlightening and I learned a lot. A pretty good way to start 2011, I think!
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach Exiting Stage Left
Fast Eddie is leaving the scene before the door hits him . . . you know the rest.
Here’s his official resignation (oddly, in point form). In his comments notice that he couldn’t help himself from taking a [very unfair] shot at Danielle Smith and the Wildrose Alliance
• There is a profound danger that the next election campaign will focus on personality and US style negative, attack politics that is directed at me personally.
• The danger is that it could allow for an extreme right party to disguise itself as a moderate party by focussing on personality – on me personally.
• This type of US style wedge politics is coming into Canada, and it comes at our peril.
• Albertans deserve to have better level of public debate on our policy options.
If he had stayed, do you think the Conservatives would have been defeated by the Wildrose Alliance? Now that he’s going, can the Conservatives regroup and salvage a win?
Live Twitter comments about his departure can be seen here.
Update: Interesting follow-up discussion between Charles Adler, Ezra Levant, and Kevin Libin.
Also, one of SDA’s most eloquent writers (and speakers), Gord Tulk, shares some very insightful analysis, far superior to any of the usual dreck one gets from the MSM!
An Interview with Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips is a British author of Jewish descent who has been speaking out against Leftist and Islamic totalitarianism for several decades now. Here’s the podcast of an interview she had last month with Roger Aronoff of Accuracy in Media. It starts off slowly but quickly gets most interesting! If you prefer, you can read the transcript of the interview.
Amazing Photos of a Destroyed City
Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have published a photo exposé of the ruins of a once great city. Is it Baghdad? Is it Kabul? Find out here. What do you think caused this destruction?
Suicide Bomber at Moscow Airport
At least 35 people are feared dead and many more injured.
h/t ‘TheRedSuit’
Report from DEBKAfile
Realtime Updates Here
Update #1:
Pamela Geller has much more (graphic images warning). h/t Marc in Calgary
Update #2:
Here’s the top rated comment on this tragedy at CBC News:
This is what passes for intelligent thought amongst some Canadians. 🙁
Uh Oh, Another Scandal in BC Politics?
From Douglas Coupland’s Twitter page a few days ago:
h/t Amy Alkon
Example #52,349 of Why Intelligent People No Longer Trust “Statistics”
A new “study” by the “Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.” at the University of Victoria claims that private liquor stores are directly responsible for increased deaths associated with alcohol. Here’s the official press release on the “study” and here’s the actual document (h/t & thanks to langmann).
The lead “researcher” on the “study”, Tim Stockwell, was interviewed on CKNW this afternoon. You can listen to the interview here, beginning at 6:00.
I was most curious why he kept on interjecting “private” before “liquor stores” so I sent him this e-mail:
On your recent appearance on CKNW, you appeared to state unequivocally that the increase in deaths due to alcohol was directly related to the fact that the increase in liquor stores in the province were private, as opposed to public.
I am most curious to find out how you proved that the same number of deaths wouldn’t have occurred if all of the private liquor stores had instead been public ones. Could you direct me to the section in your study that proves this?
No response as of yet but I will post it if & when he writes back.
Incidentally, a month ago Mr. Stockwell was advocating for higher booze prices for the general public but free alcohol for homeless drunks.
Update: . . .
Cognitive Dissonance of Aussie Greens
If you followed the Australian federal election last year then you’re aware that the Greens elected one person to the House of Representatives (though admittedly have a significant percentage of the popular vote). But because of the makeup of the current Parliament, they hold much more power than their numbers would suggest.
In a new damning article, Miranda Devine explains how the policies pushed by the Greens are very much at the heart of the recent flooding.
Here’s some recent video. Incidentally, one lie being pushed by the Leftist media in Australia is that these floods are unprecedented. Historical facts tell a very different story.
h/t Australian Climate Madness
Is the Sun Soon to Join CO2 on the Outlawed List?
Just when you thought the messages coming out of the non-trans fat pie holes mouths of Lefties couldn’t get any more ridiculous, comes this story from Reuters.
“A U.S. conversation group has sued the federal government over its approval of a major solar power plant in the California desert, the latest in a string of challenges to the nation’s renewable energy goals from the environmental community.”
I Hate The Media shares their thoughts.
Andrew Lawton is Alive & Well!
If what he wrote on his blog is any indication, his sense of humour is still intact:
As many of you know, in early December I went into a coma and was being treated for a number of related issues at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario . . . There was no brain damage. In other words, I’m still a conservative.
The Land of King George, Six Decades Later
I wonder what Queen Elizabeth’s father would think of this?
Beyond the fact that he’d of course be deemed a racist for daring to even raise the issue!
Snapshot of America: The Welfare State vs. Black Families
In an interview with Walter Williams, he describes what must change in order for Black Americans to move forward. Here’s a snippet:
During Reconstruction and up until the 1940s, 75% to 85% of black children lived in two-parent families. Today, more than 70% of black children are born to single women. “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do, what Jim Crow couldn’t do, what the harshest racism couldn’t do,” Mr. Williams says. “And that is to destroy the black family.”
Pleasing your enemies does not turn them into friends
When George W. Bush left office we were assured by everyone on the Left that the Dawn of a New Day was near. We were promised that a conciliatory approach to international relations carried out by intelligent people (ie. not Republicans) was sure to resolve every diplomatic problem in the world.
Now, 2 years later, how has that worked out? Not very darn well it appears. The problem, of course, is that Barack Obama followed closely to what the Leftist ideologues were urging him to do. This course of action failed. Miserably. He refused to show any real sign of support for the brave, freedom loving citizens in Iran. Now many of them are dead or imprisoned.
More recently, he abandoned the democracy loving citizens in Lebanon and the government there fell, in no small part to the forces of Hezbollah, a proxy of the thugocracy in Iran. No one is sure what will happen next but there are great fears that things will be bleak. One thing all* Lebanese are in agreement about is that Barack Obama and America have abandoned them.
Fouad Ajami has a comprehensive new article about all of this. Definitely well worth a read.