Medicinal Chocolate

Nov. 23 - Got a cough? Try eating some chocolate:

Eating chocolate could be a better way of stopping persistent coughing than anything available from the chemist's, according to new research.

Theobromine, an ingredient of cocoa, was found to be almost a third more effective in preventing coughing than codeine - considered the best available cough medicine.

And it is safe to drive or operate heavy machinery after eating chocolate, too!

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The true Iraqi warriors

Nov. 22 - An assessment of the willingness of Iraqi soldiers to fight for their country is in today's Washington Times in Iraqi forces stick to their guns in battle. Room for improvement? Always. Stronger hope for the future of Iraqi? Absolutely.

(Link via Neale News.)

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Reclaiming lost ideals

Nov. 22 - Holland is not a 60-year-old story anymore about Canadian soldiers and liberation from the Nazis.

These opening words of today's Ezra Levant column (Militant Islam rising) makes clear that we need to comprehend that the elegant, tolerant Europe we envision no longer exists but has become one that faces challenges that their leaders and media have been too slow to grasp:

For a generation, the public square in Western civilization has been systematically voided of any Judeo-Christian moral content. And into that void has come a competing set of moral values: Militant Islam.

Nature and politics abhors a vacuum. For a generation, Europe -- and Canada -- has been told that nothing is right or wrong, there ought not to be Judeo-Christian morality in public life, and that the philosophical compatibility and integration of immigrants is not important. That may have worked before; but it does not work in the era of Osama bin Laden and al Jazeera. These are not people coming to join things.

The other side of that coin are the numbers of Muslims who emigrated to Western countries in order to escape the harshness of some aspects of sharia yet have found themselves still subject to that rigid system due to the reluctance of Dutch and other governments to appear intolerant by interfering within what was judged to be community matters despite the cost to Muslim women who would chose to embrace Western lifestyles and aspirations.

Ghost of a Flea provides a link to the Theodore Dalrymple article Why Theo Van Gogh Was Murdered which argues that

more likely it resulted from his workÂ’s exposure of a very raw nerve of Muslim identity in Western Europe: the abuse of women. This abuse is now essential for people of Muslim descent for maintaining any sense of separate cultural identity in the homogenizing solution of modern mass society.

[...]

The abuse of women has often, if not always, appealed to men, because it gives them a sense of power, however humiliated they may feel in other spheres of their life. And the oppression of women by Muslim men in Western Europe gives those men at the same time a sexual partner, a domestic servant, and a gratifying sense of power, while allowing them also to live an otherwise westernized life. For the men, it is convenient; interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, almost the only openly hostile expressions toward Islam from British-born Muslims that I hear come from young women, some of whom loathe it passionately because they blame it for their servitude.

We urgently need a long overdue assessment of the extent to which Western society has failed Muslim women.

Ayyan Hirsi Ali is an outspoken (and fearless) women from Somalia who is a member of the Dutch Parliament but who is also under 24-hour guard due to the death threats she has received in tolerant Holland.

A Canadian Muslim woman, Irshad Manji, authored an article that is on the UPI page about Van Gogh's murder Challenging Islam is Risky which she points out that risky though it may be, at least raising questions in Western society doesn't involve incurring the wrath of the state:

... If Muslims in the West dare to ask questions about our holy book, and if we care to denounce human rights violations being committed under the banner of that book, we need not worry about being raped, flogged, stoned or executed by the state for doing so. What in God's name are Muslims in the West doing with our freedoms?

I know what many young Muslim would like us to be doing -- thinking critically about ourselves and not solely about Washington. Indeed, a huge motivation for having written my book came from young Muslims on American and Canadian campuses. Even before 9/11, I spoke at universities about the virtues of diversity, including diversity of opinion. After many of these speeches, young Muslims emerged from the audiences, gathered at the side of stage, chatted excitedly among themselves, and then walked over to me.

"Irshad," I would hear, "we need voices such as yours to help us open up this religion of our because if it doesn't open up, we're leaving it."

They're on the front lines in the battle for the soul of Islam. Whatever the risks to my own safety, I won't turn my back on them -- or on the gift of freedom bestowed by my society.

I have ranted (many times) before about the bankruptcy of both those who pretend to preach tolerance and today's feminist movement which either forgot or abandoned the notion of sisterhood and attributed such to partisan politics, but now I've come to realize that the problems run deeper and I can't expect much more from those who have also abandoned the notion that all people, including Muslim women, are entitled to freedom.

The founding ideal of the modern feminist movement in the '70s was to proclaim that we had the right to determine the course of our lives, but if we don't affirm that those rights extend to our Muslim sisters then we have betrayed that ideal and stand exposed as selfish hypocrites.

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Arafat's wealth linked to Ontario firm

Nov. 22 - It will be interesting to see if this gets coverage up here: Arafat's massive wealth exposed and among his holdings is a pharmaceutical firm in Belleville, Ontario:

THE late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat controlled a network of companies, investments and bank accounts with a value totalling at least $US1.5 billion ($1.9 billion), according to Austrian business magazine Format.

Quoting a Central Intelligence Agency report, it said the CIA had conducted inquiries after receiving information that a holding company of the Palestine Liberation Organisation had invested $US9 million in a small pharmaceutical company in the Canadian town of Belleville, Ontario.

Format said investigators had "stepped on an anthill" when they uncovered the stake held by the Palestinian Commercial Service Corporation in Bioniche Life Sciences, revealing a network of PLO funds such as Chalcedony, Onyx, Evergreen, SilverHaze and Avmax International, the last based in Aruba in the Caribbean.

The weekly said it had seen a file "detailing in concrete terms for the first time how much money was involved".

One component of the financial network alleged to have been run by Arafat, who died in a hospital near Paris on November 11, indicated that Austrian interests had been involved.

The magazine said, from 1998 to the Palestinian uprising of 2000, the Austrian bank Bawag and a group called Casino Austria had financed a gambling casino much frequented by Israelis at Jericho on the West Bank. Bawag had later financed Arafat's private jet, a Challenger 604 worth $US23 million registered in Austria.

Format also alleged Arafat controlled $US800 million in bank accounts in Austria, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The speculation about the cause of Arafat's death has overshadowed the hunt for the money which he allegedly invested on behalf of the Palestinian people but about which he failed to make public.

According to Nasser al-Kidwa, Arafat's nephew, medical records reveal that no poison was found but the cause of death is still unclear.

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Martin proposes new forum for talk

Nov. 22 - At the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit Martin made a pitch for his latest idea to reform the U.N. which would be to establish - wait for it - a new bureaucracy as a forum which could move more quickly on urgent matters.

France and Russia are among those who endorse the idea, which alone should raise eyebrows as it was they who blocked U.N. action to address repeated violations of the cease-fire which ended the '91 Iraq war and have been cited as having been among the chief beneficiaries of the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program. Russia has delayed taking action in the Sudan, and Canada lacks credibility as they would contribute talk but no army with which this new council could implement decisions or, to be blunt, is unwilling to put her sons and daughters in any danger but would pressure the USA to do so.

If Canada wants to push for more active international peacekeeping forces she will have to be willing to provide a substantial increase in the troops she can field, and that isn't going to happen.

President Bush is skeptical of the notion and

... challenged Martin to prove his idea would be anything more than a forum of talking heads making speeches before the cameras.

Seems Bush's advisors have done a good job of prepping him for his visit to Canada as to how the government up here responds to issues.

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Death in Fallujah

Nov. 22 - U.S. officials in Iraq believe they may have found the Kenneth Bigley death site in Fallujah:

Details of the house match videos Bigley appeared in during his captivity, including writing on the walls and being held in a chicken-wire cage.

The house also contained shackles and handcuffs.

Based on the evidence, "U.S. intelligence experts believe it is the house, but are not 100 percent sure," Arraf reported.

The Islamic militant group Unification and Jihad claimed to have kidnapped the men. It claims allegiance to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda.

The discovery of these houses (estimated to be as many as twenty) is almost too horrible to contemplate, and although their connection to Westerners who were held captive and beheaded is well-known what is overlooked is the number of Iraqis who were also caged and beheaded as well as the brutalization of the residents of Fallujah under the rule of the anti-Iraqi forces.

Some of these stories defy our current Western notions about the world, which may be why there is an attempt to romanticize those who held sway in Fallujah and to compare them to Minutemen, but that is naive at best and criminal at worst.

Iraqpundit lays it out squarely in the post Cunning, Resolute, and Tenacious?:

America's agenda-setting press has been quite impressed by the thugs who have been targeting, kidnapping, and murdering defenseless Iraqi civilians. A front-page headline out of Iraq in Friday's New York Times, for example, reads, "Showing Their Resolve, Rebels Mount Attacks in Northern and Central Iraq."

Got that? These murderers have been demonstrating "resolve." Indeed, throughout the battle of Fallujah and in the battles that have followed, American journalists have discovered many impressive attributes in these criminals. According to a week of major-press stories, the "insurgents" are a cunning and courageous band who have been putting up a tenacious struggle.

Here's an alternative headline the Times' staff might have considered: "Showing Their Resolve, Rebels Terrorize Families, Target Children, Disembowel Women, Behead the Elderly."

Iraqpundit cites this London Times as a "reality check" for those who claim to worry about innocent lives yet who would allow those "rebels" of Fallujah free rein to wreak their perverted "resolve" on the residents of Fallujah.

(Iraqpundit link via Instapundit)

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Salim Mansur

Nov. 22 - Salim Mansur has another column in which his gift of restoring order to the tumult of individual news stories and thus providing a focus proves invaluable. In A scandal even bigger than (lack of) WMD he pulls together the threads in Dr. Mahdi Obeidi's book The Bomb in My Garden, the Duelfer Report, the Oil-for-Food scandal, Rwanda, the pre-war bickering in the U.N. Security Council and "inverse proportion of rage":

From the killing fields of Rwanda to the killing fields of Iraq, the UN was not an innocent bystander, and Kofi Annan, the man who runs it, has much to answer for.

The great irony in all of this is the inverse proportion of rage against America's liberation of Iraq by non-Iraqi Arabs and Muslims and the Michael Moore crowd in the West, to the rage of Iraqis, as Obeidi narrates, against those who kissed and danced with the devil incarnate in Baghdad.

Reflexive reverence for the U.N. and automatic dismissal of anything said by U.S. officials may be responsible for more deaths than otherwise humane people can stomach.

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Linky Stuff

Nov. 20 - Sharing some good links:

There's a lot of interesting posts on the startling backlash in Holland to the murder of Theo Van Gogh starting with Jujitsui Generis: A Clash of Civilizations? (link via The Transplanted Texan.) It may well be that there's much more repressed resentment in Europe than we had thought. I don't know how accurate this analysis might be, but if Borders and Glenn Reynolds are right and far too many Dutch have lost faith in the ability of their government to handle this crisis then I worry about Europe in general. Peaktalk is not allaying my worries with his look at the response of the EU and Germans to Dutch proposals on limiting immigration.

Jay takes a hard look at the "mythology of multiculturalism:"

Toleration is not licence, nor is an invitation to relentlessly call for the destruction of the host culture. Muslims - and others - who do not realize this need to be reminded, initially by their own communities but, if they persist, through the criminal and immigration law.

As Jay points out, it's not only Muslims but "others" who have turned their right to expect tolerance upside down by being themselves intolerant. I believe we thought that we could teach by example, which is not an unrealistic belief, and that it seems to have failed in some cases doesn't mean it failed in all cases; perhaps making it clear that there is a responsibility for immigrants to be tolerant can enter the politically correct lexicon.

Steve is uncompromising in A Conservative Country is a Liberal Country That Got Mugged :

The Dutch, on the other hand, responded to a single murder by repudiating the leftist drivel they've been spewing proudly for decades. Holland is one of the most liberal countries on a liberal continent, but now they're putting and end to their touchy-feely, all-embracing, nuanced immigration policies.

Wonder why that is. Could it be because conservatives really believe in their values, while liberals only pretend to believe in theirs? In a word, YES. Everyone is a liberal when the living is easy. But when reality intrudes and bursts your soft utopian bubble, people turn conservative. Fast. Remember how New Yorkers adored President Bush for six months after 9/11? That's the state the Dutch are in right now.

He says a lot more, of course, so read it . And as one of the commenters pointed out, GWB made impressive gains in that historically Democrat-owned city in the last election. (Link via AlphaPatriot.)

Damian Penny is looking at two other incidents in Europe that are disquieting: the shooting death of an Orthodox Jew in Antwerp (Jerusalem Post article here)[Update Nov. 23: Belmont Club links to a JP article which says Belgium police have ruled out anti-Semitism as a motive in Moshe Na'eh's murder] and racist heckling of 2 British soccer players in Spain. From Spain, John goes into more detail including past and ongoing incidents of racism in Spain which seems to find an outlet at soccer games but notes that racism against blacks is something seemingly new. What the hell is going on over there?

The Diplomad carries the BBC story of 3 French fighters who were killed in Iraq ... and notes the spirit of Petain continues. [Nov. 26 More in-depth article in today's Washington Times, Decision to join Iraqi rebels fatal for French teens (two of them were 19 and the third was 20 years old.)]

Over here, Condoleeza Rice has been subjected to levels of racism (link via Kate at this Shotgun post) which I never believed would have been resurrected in in the USA - much less by liberals - and the latest insult has been to be called "Aunt Jemima" by a Milwaukee radio talk show host. The accusations that Bush's re-election would be accompanied by a resurgence of racism seems to be coming true, but the racism is coming from some of those who made that accusation.

He's got an explanation, but it is not just stupid but outrightly not believable. If he wanted to say that he finds her too subservient, why didn't he just say exactly that? One expects someone who is as a radio host to have a vocabulary, and whereas the tendency to disagree with something by hurling insults has become much too much a part of political discourse it is nonetheless disheartening to see how quickly racist epithets and stereotypes have leapt into mouths and on print.

If the Democrats don't disassociate themselves quickly from all this they will lose even more standing from independent members of the electorate.

Before someone says - however subtlely - that Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice aren't the "right kind" of African-American I'll warn them that I heard that kind of talk 40 years ago and regard it as racist now as then. To allow dignity to African-Americans only so long as they espouse the "correct" political line is racist. Period.

Things long over-due are happening: Annan faces a vote of no-confidence by UN staff, link via Alpha Patriot, who also reports that WaPo has finally dumped Ted Rall. [Update: There was indeed a vote of no-confidence in senior management at the UN, but a spokesperson says it wasn't directed at Annan but at the staff as a whole. The text of the U.N. staff resolution is here.]

Alpha Patriot also Deconstructs the CIA for those (like me) who need their memories refreshed about how the CIA moved from an "intelligence to an anti-intelligence footing." A lot to absorb in that post. Time to put Watergate in the same past to which Vietnam and Mogidushu have been relegated and get back to defending our country by and with whatever means are at our disposal.

And Iran; what indeed of Iran? Kateland has the excellent Question Period: Iran which needs to be read, answered and have an adequate response crafted.

The Diplomad has some constructive ideas for Dr. Rice as she takes on the denizens of Foggy Bottom here and here.

The media is still pushing the story of the US Marine who was filmed allegedly shooting a wounded man. Donald Sensing goes over the rules for treating the wounded (as well as rules regarding religious sites which are used by combatants) but the unfortunate fact is that the decision to booby-trap dead bodies and wounded anti-Iraq fighters in order to kill the Marines tending to them worked to alter the application of those rules.

Greyhawk has a great post on that subject Fish Gotta Swim ... (and has compiled an impressive list of Milblogs.)

PowerLine has some words on the subject in A Message from Baghdad from a reader:

I just got of the phone with my father in Baghdad. I asked him what is the reaction of the Marine killing the injured Iraqi in the Mosque in Felujah. His first words were "Good riddance."

People are not giving it a second thought. Any terrorist who attacks soldiers from Mosques has no sanctuary. Any terrorists who fake death to kill in a mosque deserve no mercy. He says Iraqis (including Sunnis) are fed up with the terrorists and want them eliminated.

There was much uproar about the brutal kidnapping killing of Mrs. Margaret Hassan. Iraqis are upset outraged and disgusted with her brutal abduction & killing. She helped us, helped the poor & needy and this what the terrorist do to her and her family.

That reality, of course, is what has been lost as the media thinks they've got another My Lai Abu Ghraib with which to batter the military - the cold-blooded murder of Margaret Hassan.

Her murder has sparked further concerns for those who would assist Iraqis: Aid agencies fearful for staff operating in Iraq. It goes without saying that far too many aid agencies are contemptuous of the very military which they expect will protect them ... and, of course, you can always count on sometone saying that her death is the fault of the USA. Why is it too hard to blame her death on those who killed her?

Dr. Funk has an ironic account of a CBC interview with someone claiming to be a friend of Margaret Hassan. Refer to question above.

Back to the question of how to deal with bombs masquerading as wounded fighters, there are Canadians who get it, such as Damian who states the reality pithily:

The difference any day right now between a live Marine and a dead Marine in Falluja might be a double-tap into a wounded rebel in a mosque.

So to any Marine, coalition or Iraqi soldier reading this are to hear this CFB: Your mission is to come home alive.

Gotta lighten up some. It's finals at the Greatest Canadian competition at the CBC, at Autonomous Source is entering the finals of The Most Annoying Canadian (vote on the main blog page.) Bruce is very annoyed with Carolyn Parrish for reasons no one else has mentioned and has the word on another contest: The Most Embarassing Canadian. (The biographies are hilarious.)

One very funny link (er, a link to more links, in truth) is Smokin' Good Posts with tips for Dr. Rice for her visits with dignitaries and advice for those lefties who are embarassing themselves with their public woebegone-melodramatics (and, yes, I am being disrespectful. They are in the depths of despair over a lost election but have another chance in '08 -- it really, really isn't the end of the world. We lost Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy so shut up already, m'kay?)

Shannon has word that a list of the 100 top movie quotes is being compiled so has made up her own list. Anyone can play ...

I've gone through the depressing, the funny and the fun, and now it's time for some things uplifting: Ghost of a Flea's Winston Review No. 20. (If you're new to the review, it is well worth the time to go through the archives and read the previous entries as well.)

Yesterday was Friday, which to many of us means a new Victor Davis Hanson column:

If someone wonders about the enormous task at hand in democratizing the Middle East, he could do no worse than ponder the last days of Yasser Arafat: the tawdry fight over his stolen millions; the charade of the First Lady of Palestine barking from a Paris salon; the unwillingness to disclose what really killed the "Tiger" of Ramallah; the gauche snub of obsequious Europeans hovering in the skies over Cairo, preening to pay homage to the late prince of peace; and, of course, the usual street theater of machine guns spraying the air and thousands of males crushing each other to touch the bier of the man who robbed them blind. Try bringing a constitution and open and fair elections to a mess like that.

But that is precisely what the United States was trying to do by removing the Taliban, putting Saddam Hussein on trial, and marginalizing Arafat. Such idealism has been caricatured with every type of slur — from both the radical Left and the paleo-Right, ranging from alleged Likud conspiracies and neo-con pipe dreams to secret pipeline deals and plans for a new American imperium in the Middle East shepherded in by the Bush dynasts. In fact, the effort not just to strike back after September 11, but to alter the very landscape in which our enemies operated was the only choice we had if we wished to end the cruise-missile/bomb-'em-for-a-day cycle of the past 20 years, the ultimate logic of which had led to the crater at the World Trade Center.

Oddly, our enemies understand the long-term strategic efforts of the United States far better than do our own dissidents. They know that oil is not under U.S. control but priced at all-time highs, and that America is not propping up despotism anymore, but is now the general foe of both theocracies and dictatorships — and the thorn in the side of "moderate" autocracies. An America that is a force for democratic change is a very dangerous foe indeed.

When he puts it that way, I guess we are crazy (and dangerous.)

Out for now ...

Nov. 22 - 05:52: A commenter points out that the attacks on Dr. Rice have been prompted by her political views. I believe that those who disagree with her views and actions should formulate their arguments on those grounds, but when her race is included as an attack point that is, by definition, racism.

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Debunking Walkom

Nov. 18 - Bob of Let It Bleed shreds Thomas Walkom and the notion that President Bush could/should be arrested and prosecuted for war crimes when he visits here in "It's an interesting question". The "h" word - hypocrite - is used well and often.

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Fox News coming to Canada

Nov. 18 - It's finally happened: Fox News coming to a Canadian digital channel near you.

Which, for me, will mean only that, on a daily basis, I have the option of watching the 6 a.m. news on Fox. The bigger picture is that it will certainly challenge the Canadian media who have under-reported things like the Oil-For-Food scandal and offer Canadians a different look at American attitudes and values than that offered by CNN.

I found this amusing:

Critics of Fox complained to the CRTC that Fox News Channel and its high-profile commentators are far too close to the Republicans and U.S. President George W. Bush to justify the slogan of delivering "fair and balanced news."

Uh huh. They never, of course, accused ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN of being too close to President Clinton.

The article says "as early as next year," so I need to call my cable company. Several times.

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Twinkies and Anteaters II

Nov. 18 - The tiger who is accused of allegedly mauling a stripper has been named: Paka.

Yes, the proceedings have revealed much about the little known world of lap-dancers (Pay drop blamed on tiger attack.) I'm going to assume you'll read the post, but can't resist noting these intriguing, little-know aspects of the craft:

ALS lawyer Douglas Wright was cross-examining Cowles on what effect the apparel had on her earnings as a stripper.

He noted she notched her best payday --$500 a day -- three times after the attack.

"It was unpredictable," Cowles said of her fluctuating earnings from lap-dancing, saying the totals depended on other factors such as bar crowds and number of competing dancers and the number of private dances she performed.

She kept tallies of her earnings by marking numbers accompanying happy faces denoting profits and "frown faces" indicating losses. She had to pay up to $180 a day in disc jockey fees, cab fares and her bar tab. On some "slow days" she actually lost money as a freelancer. Cowles said she was so depressed that she drank heavily -- consuming between three and 10 double-shots of Southern Comfort and Coke and later vodka coolers -- each shift.

Please, do not become a nurse. Is it unfair to note that we already have more than enough health professionals who do not follow mundane instructions for things like sterlizing equipment?

And yes, she lowered the window to take pictures (my husband is grinning because that was his immediate guess after reading the article.)

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See. Remember. Honour.

Nov. 18 - There is a picture to see and story to read: Generations Apart, Brothers Forever.

(Link via Ith.)

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Parrish and the CBC join forces

Nov. 18 - The CBC and MP Carolyn Parrish have joined forces in what the Toronto Sun is calling Voodoo politics:

SHE'S DONE it again. Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish was filmed this week for the comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes stomping on a George W. Bush doll, just weeks before his first visit to Ottawa.

The TV clip -- the latest of her anti-American gestures -- ignited renewed calls for Prime Minister Paul Martin to oust Parrish from caucus.

Conservative House Leader John Reynolds called Parrish's TV appearance "sick."

Whatever.

What is sick is that my tax dollars go to pay for this display of a Canadian MP behaving like a child, but if that were grounds for expulsion from Parliament we'd be left with legislators who actually worked on crafting policies and passing laws.

It's tempting to find a doll of Caroly Parrish and stomp on it myself, but a) I don't have the time or inclincation and b) I don't think they make fat, ugly dolls with feet in their mouths.

The same issue of the Sun has a series of articles about the failing film industry in Toronto. Somebody is finally realizing the real effect of a high loony loonie.

18:15: PM Martin has thrown Parrish out of the Liberal Party caucus perhaps for reasons other than her boorishness towards Americans:

But the final straw for Martin came after Parrish took direct aim at his leadership in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Parrish, 58, had said that if Martin "loses the next election and he has to resign, I wouldn't shed a tear over it."

"I have absolutely no loyalty to this team - none," she said.

She said she lost respect for Martin when he refused to intervene to ensure a "clean race" for the Liberal nomination in her riding of Mississauga-Erindale.

Damn, I was already set to disagree with those who applauded her expulsion on strict freedom of speech grounds, but I actually agree with her criticisms and assessment of that miserable proceeding!

"I cannot, as leader of our party and the government caucus, tolerate behaviour that demeans and disrespects others," Martin said less than 24 hours after Parrish's attack.

"It is unacceptable."

Lighten up, Martin. Look to GWB for inspiration on how a real leader handles jeers from the peanut gallery.

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Another warning for Sudan

Nov. 18 - Annan has issued the 'Strongest warning' yet to the government and rebels in Sudan and expressed disappointment that they had not adhered to a cease-fire agreement signed previously.

The U.N. has not really dealt with the ongoing murder and "relocations" in Sudan beyond admonitions to play nicely, but

The council is expected to adopt a resolution on Sudan Friday.

The council's draft resolution is holding out a carrot of development aid, including debt relief for all parties, once a north-south pact is sealed. But so far there is no sign of a stick other than U.S. sanctions.

There are divisions on the 15-member council. Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria object to strong language in a draft declaration condemning the atrocities in Darfur.

Earlier, the four abstained on a council resolution threatening an oil embargo if the Sudanese government failed to rein in the militias and hold them accountable for human rights atrocities.

In September, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell -- who has called the violence in Darfur a genocide -- accused the four countries of valuing business with Sudan over humanitarian concerns.

China's protective attitude toward the Sudan government may be due to the fact that they are the largest purchaser of oil from Sudan and have contracts for exploration and development in that country.

The U.N. is caught again in an ongoing atrocity of a member state, and
I doubt I'm the only person to point out that there haven't been massive demonstrations in front of Sudan embassies or the U.N. Although it's only been 10 years since the genocide in Rwanda and less than a year since dignitaries attended solemn commemoration ceremonies there and intoned "Never Again," the international community merely watches as it happens again.

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Australia renews pledge to fight terrorism

Nov. 18 - From Nov. 16, a reminder that the valiant Australians are leading the fight on terror in the Pacific (Canberra vow to boost terror fight) and forging an impressive coalition with her nieghbours.

In a speech delivered at the opening of the 41st Australian parliament, their firm committment to fight terrorism was re-affirmed and some new steps announced:

[Governor General Michael] Jeffery said the government intended to keep a controversial election promise to create six Australian police "flying squads" for quick deployment across borders to "disrupt terrorist networks."

Canberra also will create a counterterrorism and intelligence training school for Southeast Asian and Pacific countries.

"The Australian government places high priority on strengthening cooperation with our regional neighbors and offering assistance in capacity building in the fight against terrorism," Jeffrey said.

There is much too little in the news media about Australian leadership in the war on terror, but I for one feel heartened to have these doughty warriors as good friends and allies.

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Nights are days and days are nights

Nov. 18 - Sorry for the light posting. Sometimes the lack of sleep makes it impossible to put thoughts and words together in a coherent fashion, and other times I have sufficient sleep but that translates to having barely enough time to get ready for and travel to work.

I'm not sure I'll ever get this night work thing down pat (although the hours should lighten after New Year's.) There's a fair amount of perpetual confusion in going to work one day, coming home the next, and returning the same day. It's hard to separate one day from another. I'm comfortable with an operational standard of "it's not tomorrow until I wake up" but the newspapers and television don't share my views so I'm always feeling behind.

The worse part is Friday, which is not my Friday until I get home Saturday morning. The second worse part is that Monday is still Monday even if it doesn't actually start until late in the evening.

Sleeping during the day isn't so bad on one like this day, which was overcast and comfortably cool. (Apologies to Torontonians for wishing for non-sunny days!)

Mark Steyn is on hiatus, darn it. Oh sure, he's earned it, but I miss his pith.

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No posting alert

Nov. 15 - I have to prepare for a meeting so won't be posting today (unless something absolutely phenomenal happens.)

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Twinkies and Anteaters

Nov. 13 - NDP party leader Jack Layton wants to outlaw twinkies. Seems they have too many transfats.

Food nazi.

And tied for you couldn't make it up is the exotic dancer from Hamilton who is suing African Lion Safari after her then-boyfriend, David Balac, and she were injured after being attacked by tigers during a visit to the park because it's clearly the park's fault they let the couple in she rolled down the window.

It seems she had dreams:

The disfiguring injuries and psychological toll the tigers' mauling exacted on her cost her dream of becoming a grand-a-day headliner, [Jennifer-Anne] Cowles said.

[...]

Cowles said she hoped to exploit her natural "assets" -- long hair, large breasts and slim torso -- to become a $1,000-a-day exotic dancer. Ultimately, Cowles wished to become a nurse.

And to work for world peace.

But the scarring injuries to her head and hip forced her to wear bandannas, hats and a skirt. Her colleagues mocked and tormented her and tried to turn patrons, who were used to naked dancers, against her, she said.

Her earnings plummeted and she was forced to work as a waitress and temporarily leave her children with relatives while she recovered.

Bummer: from exotic dancer to waitress.

She had to abort the baby because the pain-killers she needed would have damaged the fetus. However, she had earlier decided she wasn't going to have the baby.

She also suffered panic, anxiety attacks and depression.

I almost wish I could feel sorry for her, but had she also lost her ability to procreate I'd be submitting this for a Darwin Award faster than you could say Tony the Tiger.

But really, why I am being a hard-hearted bitch? Maybe due to the ubiquitous millions-of-dollars lawsuits (you knew there just had to be a lawsuit, right?) which will make everything all better:

She is suing the popular Rockton game park for $2.2 million in damages resulting from the April 19, 1996 incident. Balac is seeking $1 million.

Balac is also suing Cowles, accusing her of opening the window, and she's suing him, charging that he was driving a car that wasn't working properly.

Are you following this? He took her to the theme park, she opened the window, they are both suing the theme park owners as well as one another. (The article doesn't say in what manner she alleges the car didn't work properly, unless it's that the car should have refused to enter the park with a fool in the passenger seat.)

Remember the Monty Python skit "Vocational Guidance Counsellor"? People need to do some reserach, you know? Like the hidden meaning of signs which say "Keep All Windows and Doors Closed Because Big Predatory Animals Will Attack and You Could Die."

And speaking of stuff that comes back to bite you, Ottawa Sun columnist Douglas Fisher is warning that Disdain for Bush is hurting our economic future:

The majoritarian contempt among Canadians for Bush -- for what we take as his strident patriotism, his often ignorant unawareness or thoughtless discounting of other democracies' views and qualities -- is tangible and widespread.

Awareness of this contempt seems to be increasing among Americans, particularly the politicians in Washington. Such recognition was not what led to the problems with our softwood lumber and beef exports to the U.S., but surely it's been a factor.

Over time, we cannot escape paying a high price for it with lower, less remunerative trade, including tourism, when we openly radiate a national hostility, largely founded on a Canadian morality we take as superior to that intrinsic in American mores.

This superiority centres on our distaste for the character, style, religiosity, and governance of the American president. Our attitude has become cumulative as he and his views loom larger and larger in international affairs.

Well, what Bush symbolizes is real and he has it for the next four years. We, however, have a government that faces problems of survival, given its minority status in the House of Commons.

John Kerry's defeat means Prime Minister Paul Martin has been denied the interlude in which the executive team changes in Washington.

Translation into American: Whoops. Kerry lost. Do we have a Plan "B?"

Heh. 60.480 million Americans thus far voted for Bush, and they're still counting ballots ...

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Forget MoveOn, just move!

Nov. 13 - I guess the good news is that Canada is only one of many potential destinations offered by the public-minded folks at Help Them Leave.

The bad news is that, like many children, they often threaten to run away from home but never actually do so.

(Link from Ace of Spades HQ: The Ultimate Buhhh-bye.)

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Arafat's Legacy

Nov. 13 - There seems to be a lot of activity (and optimism) about renewed efforts to establish a democratic Palestinian state that would co-exist peacefully beside Israel. U.S. Sec. of State Colin Powell is busily setting up meetings. (I suspect that, whatever the veracity of the rumours about his impending resignation, Powell will stay around to see this one through.) [Update: I'm wrong on that last one; see below.]

The U.S. mainstream media has underscored that "Arafat died without realizing his dream of a Palestinian state," but unless the Arab media has also laid grounds for hope that peaceful co-existence can be realized, I'm not as optimistic as President Bush and PM Tony Blair seem to be (report of their meeting here.) (But I also believe in the motto "Never Quit.")

It's interesting that former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has been named as PLO chairman following Arafat's demise. The power struggle between Arafat and Abbas when he was Prime Minister (was it only last year?) underscored how much power was concentrated in Arafat's hands, so it will perhaps be an indicator of how justified the optimism is when we see to what extent he and Qureia (who has been running the Palestinian Authority during Arafat's incapacitation) can prove themselves capable of co-operating with one another or if, as is feared, a power struggle will consume this opportunity for peace.

The Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade (newly renamed the Arafat Martyr Brigade) will also be interesting to watch; to whom will they be loyal? Or will they prove capable of growing beyond their personality-cult origins and be loyal to the notion of a Palestinian state? Hamas and Hezbollah are unlikely to be placated by the prospects of peaceful co-existence and a democratic Palestinian state, but their sponsors Syria and Iran will have to make some hard choices as to whether they want to appear to be obstructionists to a peaceful settlement. I'd guess there will be a split decision: Syria will at least say all the right things, and Iran will denounce any peace accord. (What they actually do may prove to be something else entirely.)

Next question: where's the money? Even CNN finally picked up on this one:

Meanwhile, officials in the Palestinian Authority are searching for millions of dollars believed hidden away by the Palestinian leader. Last week, as Arafat lay in his death bed, Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad held a teleconference with donors spelling out massive budget problems. He said the authority had only $19 million to meet payroll expenses of $225 million by the end of this year alone.

Millions of dollars are an estimate on the low side. The EU had suspended payments until an audit was performed then relented in order to pay security personnel. (The audit was a partial one as there were many holes in the accounts.)

The assumption has been that Arafat's widow, Suha, knew where the money was, and (unspecified sources alert) she will reportedly get a hefty settlement from the Palestinian Authority:

The 41-year-old wife of Arafat had been demanding half his billions in hidden assets and threatening to withhold details about where to find them from the new Palestinian leadership, according to newspapers in Italy and Israel.

After intense negotiations, she agreed to a deal with Arafat's successor as PLO chief, Mahmoud Abbas, when he visited Arafat's hospital.

According to one account in Corriere de la Serra, Suha will receive $22 million a year from the Palestinian Authority budget.

Another account, cited by the newspapers Maariv and La Repubblica, Suha will receive:

* A one-time payment of $20 million.

* A stipend of $35,000 a month for life.

* More than $10 million that was discovered last year by French authorities investigating money laundering.

French sources said yesterday that earlier this week, Suha turned down a $2 million offer. That settlement would have allowed doctors to complete medical tests to determine what illness proved fatal to the 75-year-old Palestinian leader.

Paul posted some choice Images of the Day which may be work safe but are definitely not snark safe.

9:50: Damian isn't optimistic either.

Nov. 15 - 10:30: Colin Powell has submitted his resignation.

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