Archive for: February 2007

I don’t know about what a lot of you out there may think of this but I say, “damned good for him.” Yes, I know some are going to say it’s a publicity stunt, it’s this, it’s that, it’s some other damned thing. It doesn’t matter. For either of you that haven’t heard yet, HRH Prince Henry of Wales (aka Prince Harry) is going to Iraq.

As His Highness puts it:

“There’s no way I’m going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my arse back home while my boys are out fighting for their country.”

Well said, if I do say so myself…

Our country has lost another defender and witness to history today. Lloyd Clemett, one of the last three of Canada’s veterans of the Great War, passed away in Toronto late in the evening on Wednesday, the 21st of February, 2007. He was one hundred and seven years old.

Mr. Clemett’s passing leaves only two living veterans of the First World War remaining in all of Canada, one of whom will be given a full state funeral upon his passing, in accordance with the unanimous decision of the House of Commons in November of 2006.

“It was something you had to do, so you went and you did it” was the explanation Clemett offered when asked why he went to war, his son David Clemett said in an interview.

“It’s really something that he never elaborated on, he never talked about when I was growing up. It was just a fact, that at some point in time he was in the First World War.”

The only indication his father had served in the conflict was a brass-bound war chest containing his service uniform, tucked away in the basement of the family home in north Toronto. It was only in recent years that Clemett shared his war stories with family.

Like so many others anxious to join their countrymen in the trenches of France, Clemett told the army he was 18 – the official enlistment age – when he signed his papers in January 1916.

More on the loss here, here and here.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

–For The Fallen, Laurence Binyon, 1914

There’s an old saying that I had drilled into my head over and over, once upon a time: “Once is an accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.” Let me tell you, ladies and gents, this stinks to the rafters.

It’s one thing to say that the Librano$ are soft on terrorism (which I think they are; but then I think they’re soft on all kinds of crime in general), but it’s another thing entirely to see something this damned suspicious and then hear nothing from the Grits except not-so-righteous indignation.

Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself what popped up in the Vancouver Sun today:

A young Liberal MP who delivered Stephane Dion 250 leadership votes is the son-in-law of a man police have interviewed in connection with the Air India bombing case.

Navdeep Singh Bains, MP for Mississauga-Brampton South, shot on to the national stage after the December 2006 convention in which he delivered huge support to Gerard Kennedy and later to Dion, who won the Liberal leadership by 437 votes.

The Vancouver Sun has learned that Bains’s father-in-law, Darshan Singh Saini, is on the RCMP’s potential list of witnesses at investigative hearings designed to advance the Air India criminal probe.

But the ability to hold those hearings will be lost March 1 if parts of the Anti-Terrorism Act expire as expected, after the Liberals recently withdrew support for extending the provision being used to hold them.

And before some little shit out there even thinks about trying any ad hominem bullshit: don’t even fucking bother. Yes, I’m partisan; yes, I’m a card-carrying member of the VRWC; and yes, whenever I hear something bad about the Natural Governing Party of Canadaâ„¢, I tend to believe it right off the bat. But for all that, I still know that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it ain’t no God damned platypus.

I’m not the only one thinking what I’m thinking either. Groups from the Air India Victims’ Families Association to B’nai Brith to even other Liberals are calling bullshit…

Some privately grouse that Dion has been influenced by militant Sikh and Muslim groups, members of which helped secure his leadership victory last December.

Those complaints were echoed Tuesday by the chairman of the Air India Victims’ Families Association.

“It looks like the sympathizers of terrorism have more influence on (Liberals),” Gupta said.

He said Dion may have become “victim of vote bank politics,” referring to ethnic bloc voting.

[…]Frank Dimant, the Jewish organization’s executive vice president, said he too has heard speculation that the Liberals are “pandering to certain specific groups within the Canadian society.”

“In a way, it’s a little bit of a continuation of what happened at the Liberal leadership convention. This seems to be becoming more of a pattern,” he said.

The Air India bombing was (so far) the worst act of terrorism in Canadian history, claiming 329 lives. Prior to 9/11, it was the deadliest terrorist attack ever, anywhere. Now, just as some Grit’s daddy-in-law is about to get grilled over the whole affair, the Librano$ are trying to pull the plug on the very law, WHICH THEY ENACTED IN THE FIRST PLACE, that makes the investigation possible.

Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.

Some CTV footage is here.

They’re here! They’re finally here! The waiting is over!

Um… no, I haven’t been drinking. Lent starts today, remember? No, what’s got me all excited is: the awards we’ve all been waiting to hear about have finally been, well, awarded.

Oscar who? No, not those awards, bonehead. I’m talking about the Teddies…

The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation has come through once again with the Ninth Annual Teddies Waste Awards and let me tell ya, boys and girls, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of trough-snouters. Here’s just a sampling of the list (WARNING: spoilers follow): 😆

“And the federal Teddy goes to Senator Colin Kenny, once again showing that the last institution to get the memo regarding Canadians’ demands for accountability from lawmakers is the Canadian Senate. Rest assured Senator Kenny, the days of unaccountable officials thinking they can fleece Canadian taxpayers with impunity because they’ll never have to face the electorate will soon be over,” said Ms. Batra as she unveiled the first Teddy of 2007, a beautiful golden sow.

So what are you still doing here? Get your butt over to the CTF’s site and see for yourself. 😛

All I can say is, thank God I didn’t have any girls. If you’re a parent like me, you know a lot about worrying. And if, unlike me, you have a daughter, you worry even more. It seems like the so-called roll models for young girls just get worse and worse. Britney’s bald, Lohan’s loopy and Hilton is still searching for her gag reflex. 🙄 What the hell kind of example are these tarts setting for young girls?

Well, as it turns out, there might not be so much to worry about as some of us might have thought. I think it was Orwell who observed that every generation ever born considers itself smarter than the one that came before and wiser than the one that comes after. That truism may well apply to us because it seems that, for all our worrying, these torpid trollops don’t seem to be having anywhere near the influence that some think they do…

Kate Bowers, 15, of Calgary, says she can’t believe how young Hollywood celebrities are wasting their lives.

“It’s just so stupid that they’re spending all their money on partying all the time and that they want to get photographed doing it,” Bowers said. “And it doesn’t seem very fun to be out and falling all over the place really drunk and out of it. Now it’s just like: ‘Why would I ever want to do that?’ “

Seems that kids aren’t quite as dumb as we were afraid they were. Isn’t it nice to be wrong . . . every now and then?

As most of you that have been here a few times before already know, My blogging habits tend to be rather cyclical. And when I find myself in one of those slow patches, I have a bit of a habit of falling back on the ol’ suggested reading post. Slapping up links to things that have caught my eye one way or the other in the past few days.

As you’ve likely guessed by now, this is one of those slow patches. So, without further ado, here’s a listing of things I’ve tripped over on the net lately that I think are worth a look (for one reason or another)…

Sliding into an abyss
Michael Coren, TO Sun

Sometimes we in the media merely play a game, making little ripples at the side of the water rather than diving right in to make an almighty splash.

In other words, we run around the edge of various problems and debates but are afraid to shine light on the authentic dilemmas of our age.

Whether it’s politics, economics, culture or morality, the culture, society and various pundits always assume that things are getting better — that we’re making progress and that what we have and what is to come is superior to what was.

Problem is, it’s mostly nonsense.

Cheating has become a way of life
Ted Byfield, Cowtown Sun

When a columnist in one of our leading financial newspapers last year casually asserted telling lies is indispensable to the efficient functioning of business, I was doubly shocked.

First, because the paper published it. Second, because no reader so far as I know questioned this remarkable contention.

Disturbing reality buried
Licia Corbella, Calgary Sun

In the news business, it’s called burying the lead.

It means you missed the most important or interesting part of a story and led with something less significant.

Dion’s politics shift with wind
Ezra “the Lip” Levant, Calgary Sun

Stephane Dion, the new Liberal leader, says he’s against renewing the provisions of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act.

Because the Conservatives don’t have a majority, and the Bloc and NDP are notoriously soft on the war on terror, Dion holds the balance.

And he’s voting not to renew our security laws.

He’s pretending it’s still Sept. 10.

Pardon me for being astonished
Ian Robinson, Cowtown Sun

OK, I’ll bite.

What in the name of all that’s holy does somebody have to do to be well and truly punished by the judicial system?

[…]

I guess to be truly punished, you’ve got to videotape yourself raping high school girls that you kill later and then get caught and have your wife testify against you.

That would make you Paul Bernardo.

Of course, if you’re Paul’s partner-in-crime, Karla Homolka, you get a taxpayer-funded university degree in a prison so lax that you get to enter into loving, lesbian relationships — and model lingerie.

Deadline on Kyoto not doable
Rory Leishman, Da Freeps

In forcing a bill through Parliament that gives the Harper government 60 days to come up with a detailed plan for fulfilling Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the three opposition parties are simply playing Canadians for fools. The leaders of these parties know full well that no government — not even one led by them — could possibly meet this absurd deadline.

Under terms of the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is supposed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below the levels set in 1990 by 2012. The previous Liberal government signed this Kyoto Protocol on behalf of Canada, but failed to devise a plan for fulfilling the commitment.

Go west, young man, to find Canada
Jordan Michael Smith, Ottawa Sun

I moved to Calgary recently, to work at the Western Standard for a couple of months. I’ve only been out here a few days, but I feel well-versed enough in the city’s ways to say this: Calgary is unlike any large city I have ever seen.

Calgary has about a million people, so you’d think it would feel like a big city. You’d be wrong.

The Kyoto horror show
Lorrie Goldstein, TO Sun

  Here’s my list of the “top 10” problems with the Kyoto accord on global warming. Feel free to add your own.

My own Inconvenient Truth
Rachel Marsden, TO Sun

A U.S. Congressional hearing on climate change was cancelled this week because of a massive snowstorm in DC. I’m just wondering, how many academic degrees are required for a person to find that funny?

An article in the Los Angeles Times perfectly sums up global warming quackery: “As glaciers from Greenland to Kilimanjaro recede at record rates, the central icecap of Antarctica has been steadily growing for 11 years, partially offsetting the rise in seas from the melt waters of global warming, researchers said.”

The “experts” claim to be able to measure the temperature of the Earth. (I don’t want to know where they stick the thermometer.) They travel to remote regions and declare that because ice is melting somewhere and growing somewhere else, that means the Earth is (drumroll) warmer! Duh. Of course it does.

Knock yourselves out, kids.  More of my own rantings as soon as I can grab some spare time again… 🙄