Oct. 31 - My work

Oct. 31 - My work schedule has changed, so I'll be posting at different times on a near daily basis at least until Christmas. I'll try to keep up, but go check out the fine bloggers on my blogroll. They're a good group.

Happy Halloween, too! Save me some candy . . .

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Oct. 31 - I freely

Oct. 31 - I freely admit that I don't really get Quebec, and since the question of separation was settled long ago in the USA, I have a cultural bias that precludes any pretense at objective analysis. This doesn't exactly help in furthering my understanding:

QUEBEC -- Quebec's National Assembly voted unanimously yesterday to recognize Quebec as a nation, but not all parties agree on what it means.

The unanimous vote comes a day after a heated debate in the [Canadian] House of Commons in which the Liberal majority defeated a Bloc Quebecois motion also calling for the recognition that Quebec constitutes a nation. [Background here.]

The Bloc motion stated that Quebec could withdraw from new federal spending programs with full financial compensation. The National Assembly motion contained no such demands, only a simple declaration: "That the Quebec National Assembly reaffirms that the Quebec people constitute a nation."

The motion was immediately sent to House of Commons, where it will be delivered to all the federal members of Parliament.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who tabled the motion, insisted that the motion will not change Quebec's status within Canada. "Quebec is a nation within the Canadian nation," Mr. Charest said. "It contradicts nothing in the fact that we are both Quebeckers and Canadians."

But maybe there's more politican maneuvering than meets the eye when I remember the flack over the issue of whether Mike Harris speaks French, hmm? And then there's this, which more than anything seems to indicate that polls are useless:

As the debate over the recognition of Quebec as a nation unfolded, a public opinion poll conducted in Quebec for the Council for Canadian Unity showed support for sovereignty-partnership at 47 per cent in September, an increase of six percentage points since last April. However the same poll also showed that 75 per cent of Quebeckers were favourable "to the [Charest] government playing a very active role to help the Canadian federation work better."

Seven people were recently arrested for painting anti-Canadian slogans in a predominantly anglophone former suburb of Montreal and possession of homemade bombs. This report that there is a Quebec militia training and armed to take on the Canadian army. The militia's vice-president says the aims of the militia are defensive in nature:

"We want to act in entire legality. We want to train people to defend and help the Quebec people, for example in cases of natural disasters. We want to defend sovereigntist activists if they're attacked during a demonstration."

The group would also act if the Canadian army moves in after a yes vote for sovereignty, she said.

A former member of the group told the TVA television network that he quit after hearing people muse about blowing up mailboxes in English-speaking areas. The vice-president said such plans are not condoned by the militia.

I hardly think that the FLQ is going to make a dramatic comeback, so there's no panic!

But, and it's a biggie, under a new law recently voted into effect, the Canadian taxpayer will be footing the bill for candidates at the rate of $1.50 for each vote garnered by the political parties in national elections. That means that my tax dollars will go to funding a separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois, as well as a socialist party, the NDP. That's just so wrong on so many levels.

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Oct. 31 - It's rather

Oct. 31 - It's rather neat to be reading a debate over which armoured transport should be supplied to the Canadian army: after so many years of agitating for better equipment, it is a definite improvement that folks are arguing which should be purchased rather urging that purchases must be made even against this backdrop of orders to Defence Secy. McCallum that he reduce military spending.

Toronto Sun columnist Peter Worthington argues that the Stryker are a Strategic buy and that the opposition should be focused on a bigger issue:

The opposition would be better advised to urge that 166 Strykers be purchased instead of 66.

The Canuckistanian agrees that the Stryker would be a valuable acquisition and cites his own experience (and he too has pictures!).

Have you ever seen a jeep with an oversized gun on it?

Have you ever seen what it can do?

I have and it scared the hell out of me!

Paul still doesn't like the Stryker and links here to a study of Stryker Brigades vs. The Realities of War at the Global Security website, but agrees with Worthington about quantity and also points out that flag officers will outnumber tanks as well as this numbers sting:

Which also brings to mind a rant that has been wandering through my mind of how, if procurement continues the way it has been going when it comes to heavy items - replacing two with one, or less -, by 2100 you should have a grand total of three tanks and two planes facing off against each other on the battlefield ...

Paul wants both more and better. I can't see anything wrong with that, and would be happy to have the heavier tanks as well as the lighter Stryker.

Many of the recommendations by the military are based on a 1998 report which, as I ranted earlier, is irrelevant in this new era of fighting terrorism.

Bottom line: no army would be wise to limit their functionality to a single terrain, field condition, or assumption as to which country they might be deployed to work alongside.

Making purchases on the assumption that larger and heavier American transport will be close by is very short-sighted. Although the Canadian and American military have worked together before, a recent deployment of the Canadian military assisted the French in the Congo, and they are now working with an international force in Afghanistan under German leadership.

What I know about armoured transport is, well, isn't, if you get my drift, but this tiny move by the Liberal Party to seek improvements in the equipment of the military is still a good first step.

Now, about those helicopters:

HALIFAX -- Investigators were examining the engines and gear boxes on two Sea King helicopters yesterday after the aircraft lost power in flight, forcing the military to restrict the fleet's flying time to only critical missions. For the first time in its troubled 40-year history, the aircraft were ordered to stand down and not fly any non-operational flights. The six now able to take to the air in Halifax and the remaining Sea Kings in British Columbia will not be able to conduct routine training missions, but can still respond to emergencies.

That could change as early as today if engineers find enough similarities between the two mishaps to warrant a complete grounding of the geriatric fleet.

Predictably, PM Chretien is not embarrassed that the fleet is grounded. After all, he was willing to see the Snowbirds disbanded for lack of training jets so he could indulge his yen for flying palaces.

We also musn't forget the goofy notion the government put forward that civilians patrol Canada's coast instead of upgrading the navy.

As I see it, fighting for better equipment for the army is Round One. Rounds 2 and 3 are to upgrade the equipment for the air force and the navy.

Support the troops that protect us. It's that simple.

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Oct. 30 - Donald Sensing

Oct. 30 - Donald Sensing over at One Hand Clapping takes a couple of steps back to look at The Big Picture in the war on terror, the casus belli for military intervention in Iraq, the rationale for that intervention as well as the reminder that heck yes! it's a big gamble, but when have the stakes ever been higher? We're sitting one card short of a royal flush, and what kind of miserable creature would throw in their cards with that hand?

The post is an excellent read, but it's got something extra: it boosted my morale.

We will not falter, we will not tire, we will not fail is a heck of a lot easier for us to say than it is to do here on the homefront, so if we are to keep the homefires burning we must commit to endlessly countering the leftist propaganda, and I admit it: I'm getting tired.

I doubt I'm the only person who would much rather be over there than bogged down here trying to keep the nation's focus on the real successes while the highly weird Democrat Party presidential primary candidates strut their stuff to what is admittedly a generally unimpressed electrorate, but I know I just know that we can't get tired and we can't let up.

As Donald points out:

This strategy is fraught with risk and may not succeed. But playing a deadly game of whack-a-mole with Islamic terrorists is a strategy doomed to fail.

The campaign against terrorism is foundationally a contest of wills - dare I say it, a spiritual struggle.

The real issue is whether the Western Civilization shall prevail against the last vestige of medievalism; whether the rule of men who shoot their prisoners, enslave their women and deny the rights of self-determination to their own people, shall kill us and displace us, to whom the individual and individual rights are sacred and whose laws require respect for freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and whose traditions preserve freedom from fear and cruelty. In the long history of civilization, this task is to be done now. (Emphasis added)

He's right: we can't let them break our spirit.

Further, I'm not sure I properly understood how fundamentally the war on terror would link with the fight against anti-Semitism (simply because I hadn't recognized there had been a resurgence of anti-Semitism until the apologists for Sept. 11 expressed their views) but that too is a struggle that must and will be won.

So I am grateful to Donald for putting together a cogent, reasoned argument that starts with Sept. 11 on through to our current struggle in Iraq (and for us civilians, on the homefront) and most especially and personally because I need it. Morale matters for civilians too.

I don't often bookmark single posts, but this is the exception that breaks the rule.

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Oct. 30 - A dispatch

Oct. 30 - A dispatch from Stephen Thorne on yesterday's blast which was caused when a lightly armoured front-end loader hit an explosive device. Sgt. Rene Grignon was stunned but uninjured. Investigators will determine what kind of ordinance was involved and, hopefully, may be able to determine when it was laid.

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Oct. 30 - There's more

Oct. 30 - There's more about the equipment concerns for the Canadian military Strykers defended which I'm only noting for future reference.

I still think that all the discussion about equipment obscures the real problem: that the armed forces in Canada are not given the respect and support from the leadership in this country. But that would require a change in the way Canadian history is taught, and we can't have that, right?

There's more here.

UPDATE: Paul has pictures and asks the Lord to smite John McCallum. There's that delicious word Smite again . . . and he's got even more pictures as well as a defense plan that would personally involve the Defense Minister. (Defence? defense? . . . sometimes I get confused which country goes with which spelling. Sue Me.)

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Oct. 30 - An update

Oct. 30 - An update on steps being taken by Toronto Airport after a missile threat to an El Al flight forced it to divert from Toronto to Montreal and then Hamilton:

Security officials have since provided more air space between flights as El Al jets approach the airport, police said.

Police are also conducting background checks of flights originating from smaller Toronto airports when El Al is in the air to prevent in-air missile attacks. And teams of officers are also cruising highways around Pearson as the flights descend searching for signs of a missile launcher.

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Oct. 30 - This from

Oct. 30 - This from Barrie, Ont. (Barrie? Yikes!): 3 face explosives rap. I never really thought of Barrie as a hotbed of radical or gang activity, so this is definitely in the WTF department:

BARRIE -- Three young adults were in bail court yesterday facing charges of vehicle theft and possession of two grenade-like explosive devices. Nicole Bazin, 18, Mark Burt, 18 and Steven Fiala, 20, all from the Barrie area, are charged with theft and possession of a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder and two counts of possession of an explosive device. They are to be back in bail court this morning.

UPDATE: Doh! Pierre from B.C. points out that the kids probably had explosives for Halloween hijinks, because nothing says Halloween more than blowing stuff up. The bigger the bang the better. I hadn't thought of that, being from the days of rotten eggs and tp-ing the school, but it seems the very likely explanation. Thanks, Pierre.

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Oct. 30 - Interesting story

Oct. 30 - Interesting story from AP reporter Jim Krane in today's Sun about the outsourcing of jobs by the US military and the dangers they face (Contractors face heat in military zones.) Unfortunately, he veers too quickly from the contractors and goes into a full scale rant on the military-industrial complex, but, rhetoric aside, it raises some valid points about the extent to which civilians are involved not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Liberia and Kosovo.

Krane fails to draw a fairly obvious parallel between US contractors and contractors for the NGO-civilian-complex, nor does he address how NGOs like the Red Crescent and the UN cut and run at the first sign of danger whereas US contractors stay and do the jobs which with they've been entrusted.

In contrast, Kingdom of the Geeks has been publishing emails from one known as Capt. "L" who is one of those contractors (correct me if I'm wrong) and who has a different take on his role as a contractor than the one Krane describes. In a post describing the bombing at the Al Rashid Hotel, the Capt. notes:

After the hotel was attacked, the military officer that was killed was found by his window with a rifle pointing out the window and set for full automatic. I figure that he must of heard the first hit and went to the window to attempt to return fire, when his room took a rocket strike, killing him.

Capt. "L" is former military, and his reports are full of respect for the military and he wrote earlier that he felt humbled to be working alongside and eating spam with the fine men and women over there.

Capt. "L" knows exactly why he's in Iraq and what role he is playing. It's a pity Mr. Crane didn't interview him or, for that matter, any of the contractors in hot zones. I'll rate the courage and dedication of the contractors over the feckless NGO types every.single.day. God bless and keep them.

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Oct. 30 - The Palestinian

Oct. 30 - The Palestinian PM-For-Today, Ahmed Qureia, has a wonderful idea: negotiate a truce with the terrorist groups that operate freely in PA territory and ask Israel to honour it. Seeing as all previous truces have merely been a breather so the terrorists could plan and launch more attacks, I just can't understand why Israel wouldn't want to go along with this new one.

I get Rocky and Bullwinkle flashbacks when I read such announcements by the PA: remember how Bullwinkle would pretend to be a magician and tell Rockey Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out o' my hat! and Rocky would say Again? That trick never works!

In My World (which is admittedly a poor one compared to Frank J.'s,) those are the words I'd like President Bush to use when he hears about this latest plan. Maybe not aloud, because that wouldn't be, you know, statesmanlike, but I'd sure hope they're what he'd be thinking.

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Oct. 30 - The TTC

Oct. 30 - The TTC has put aside agonising over Sony RPG games and is doing something useful in the city-wide effort to find Cecilia Zhang: they have placed her picture up on posters at subway stations and on toll boxes.

Anyone who has seen Cecilia (links to picture) should call 416-808-8390 in English and 416-808-3681 in Chinese.

In another story, organizers of the festival to celebrate the Chinese New Year next January are using the networking and preparations for it to help in the search for Cecilia.

Does anyone else find it both eerie and hopeful that Elizabeth Smart has been back in the news? Oh well, I'm always greedy for good omens.

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Oct. 30 - Peter Worthington

Oct. 30 - Peter Worthington pretty much sums up my attitude toward all the hoopla over the MPs using Irving family jets and fishing lodges when he identifies the corruption as being on A petty scale:

More serious breaches are when ministers give contracts without mandatory bidding process (like the PM getting DND to buy new and unnecessary ministerial aircraft for prestige purposes.[)] Or ministers hiring their girlfriends for consulting work, or paying them to write reports on subjects they know nothing about; or ministers wasting a billion dollars on nothing; or the billion-dollar gun registry boondoggle that will actually increase crime and violence rather than curtail it. The list goes on and on.

Exactly. The media is focused on a relatively tiny breach of ethics at the expense (ha!) of major boondoggles. Classic diversionary tactic, I mutter. Plain-freaking-diversion. Don't fall for it.

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Oct. 29 - There are

Oct. 29 - There are some serious rumours that another attack against Internet Haganah is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. The attack is evidently against HostingMatters (which no longer services Haganah thanks in great part to the many bloggers who rushed to their defence by digging deep to donate to the tip jar over there) so whereas it may be inconvenient for us they will miss their target. There's a lesson in that somewhere . . .

Attack my freedom of speech, will you? Not. in. this. lifetime.

For more information link to Snooze Button Dreams: Here we go again.

Also, check at Irreconcilable Musings who's keeping track of the other bloggers keeping track. As he puts it, We shall not be silenced!

(Primary link via The Penguin.)

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Oct. 29 - Who does

Oct. 29 - Who does it better than Frank J.? Bite-Sized Wisdom: Me Busy, Me Insulted, Terrorists, Fight Club, and Screw You Guys:

So the terrorists attacked the Red Cross on their own frick'n holy month. For those of you who are behind the curve, these people are evil. EEEEEEEvil. It would be morally wrong of us not do everything we can to splatter these bastards despite the whining of the hippies. Do you want to have to explain why the terrorists aren't dead to your children?

"Daddy, why aren't the bad people dead"

"Because of Demi-crats and Europeans."

Ka-boom!

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Oct. 29 - One of

Oct. 29 - One of my recent additions to the blogroll is Rangting Profs. In the post WHAT DO TERRORISTS WANT? is this neat summation:

Terrorism is, and I don't mean to sound to flippant or glib here, so bear with me, essentially an evil form of performance art.

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Oct. 29 - This is

Oct. 29 - This is such an affront to Truth, Justice and the American .., oh, wait; wrong villain, start again? Yeah, now GO!

The Filthy Lie I'm about to relate about Evil Glenn's Halloween costume is an affront to every DC Comic fan ever born.

That evil, wicked puppy blender is going as Oswald Cobblepot, The Penguin himself, from Batman.

Evil Glenn is now messing with the Legend of the Dark Knight. Is nothing sacred to the vile hobo killer?? He probably had a hand in the progressively worse Batman films too. Oh yes, there are many MANY more lies in Gotham City, and you can be sure Evil Glenn is blamed for all of them. [All you have to do is post something clearly marked as a lie and he'll be blamed. Simple, really.]

Uh huh, and like now I'm wondering what really happened to that nasty little ankle biter from Batman Returns which would have been a much better movie without Danny DeVito as the Penguin and are we are seeing the pattern here? Hmm?

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Oct. 29 - This week's

Oct. 29 - This week's assignment in Precision Guided Humor is "What lessons can we learn from the life of Ted Kennedy?"

Being in a somewhat philosophical state of mind today, I find myself reflecting on the influence of the Kennedys during my own lifetime: the invigorating personae of both John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, the shocks my generation experienced upon their untimly deaths, and how deeply the death of John Jr. a few years ago reopened those old pains.

I remember the Inaugural Speech of John F. Kennedy in 1961 only barely (althought it was been replayed many times) but do remember how a certain word gained a new pronounciation: vigor. There is also Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country. The Peace Corp. Drawing the line against communism. Sending in National Guard troops to Little Rock. Profiles in Courage.

I saw John F. in person when he was awarded a doctorate degree from UC Berkeley. My grade school attended the ceremonies along with everyone else in and near Berkeley. I don't remember what he said, but I do remember that he was vibrant and infused with an energy and confidence in the people of America.

I only saw Robert F. while he was waving from a motorcade during the 1968 Dem primary campaign in California, and he too had this magical electricity and confidence in our abilities to take up challenges and succeed. I've never been to the Ambassador Hotel, and never will.

We learned a new word during the Kennedy years: charisma. Jack and Bobby had it, John Jr. had it, Ted, alas, doesn't. But neither did/do Johnson, Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, although Ronald Reagan had it (which was a really awkward discovery given that I was a lefty back when Reagan was governor of California.) (I've never seen either Bush, Clinton or Bush live before, so don't know about them.)

But that's not a lesson we can learn from Ted Kennedy because it's not his fault that he doesn't have charisma.

The Pope visited Toronto a few years ago, and in one of the most powerful statements I think I've ever heard, he looked gently at the many young people assembled and told them that they didn't know how good they were.

President Bush has reminded the American people that we are a good, generous people who have always treated our friends and enemies with kindness and forgiveness.

President Kennedy had full confidence when he proposed going to the moon that we would succeed precisely because the challenge was so hard. Despite the many conspiracy theories that surround the president's assassination, the evidence remains that a Communist who had lived in the Soviet Union killed Kennedy, probably in retaliation for the events of the Cuba Missile Crisis.

Sen. Kennedy once said that some people look at those things that are and ask why, and he looks at what could be and ask why not. Sen. Kennedy was killed by a Jordanian, Sirhan Sirhan, who claimed he was disappointed because the Senator was a strong supporter of Israel.

I tend to date the beginning of American self-loathing in 1968 when both Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy were killed. Those events marked a downward spiral in our belief in ourselves as a people and a country. It took until Sept. 11 to shake off that malaise of self-destructiveness and reaffirm that there are many, many good things about the USA and Americans.

Sen. Ted Kennedy should have played a vital and positive role in this rebirth of the American spirit and would, after all, have been continuing the family tradition in exhibiting confidence and faith in the American people. But he didn't.

The lesson? Ted Kennedy could have been a contender. That his presidential ambitions may have been dashed when he drove off a bridge so many years ago doesn't change the fact that he still could have contributed to the future of his country today by invoking and giving that which the Kennedys have always given aplenty: complete and total confidence in the American people.

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Oct. 29 - Two Soldiers

Oct. 29 - Two Soldiers Killed in Iraq Explosion near Baghdad when their Abrams transport was damaged by a land mine or roadside bomb near Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad.

7 Ukranian soldiers were injured:

A spokesman for the multinational division at Camp Babylon said the attack on the Ukrainians occurred when two of their armored personnel carriers rolled over land mines near Suwayrah about 40 miles southeast of Baghdad.

After the vehicles were disabled, unidentified gunmen opened fire on the disembarked soldiers, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

About 1,650 Ukrainians are serving in the Polish-led stabilization force patrolling central and southern Iraq.

The beginning of Ramadan marks this latest wave of terrorist attacks in Iraq. Americans, British and Canadians have been advised to be vigilant due to increased security concerns in Saudi Arabia.

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Oct. 29 - Slings and

Oct. 29 - Slings and Arrows is back online after the power went back up. He also carries this report from a fellow blogger who did have to evacuate.

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Oct. 29 - Michael Moore

Oct. 29 - Michael Moore is being sued:

Detroit — James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the anti-gun documentary Bowling for Columbine, according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore.

Nichols also alleges in the lawsuit, filed in Detroit, that Moore libelled him by linking him to the terrorist act.

Nichols accuses Moore of libel, defamation of character, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawyer is asking for a jury trial and damages ranging from $10-million to $20-million (U.S.) on each of nine counts, the Detroit Free Press reported.

A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with Moore's publicist.

In the film, Moore asks Nichols for an interview and steers the subject from the Oklahoma City bombing to gun ownership. Nichols tells Moore he has a gun under his pillow, and Moore asks Nichols to show him.

In the lawsuit, Nichols, who lives in Decker, said Moore misled him about the purpose of the interview.

Bowling for Columbine won the feature-length documentary Academy Award earlier this year.

There have been calls to revoke the Oscar due to the many flights of fancy that make Bowling for Columbine less documentary and more mockumentary.

Recently released videos which show the two Columbine shooters purchasing their weapons and engaging in targets practice with their new weapons indicate that the Columbine shootings were not spree killings but planned well in advance of that morning.

(Via Neale News.)

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