June 29 - Commenter Tim provides this link to The Evidence: Chronology of Attacks on the West:.

I'm at a loss for words. The traces of memories of these attacks pale when confronted with so lengthy a list, but it does confirm that Western countries were stupid to ever bargain with the terrorists.

I wonder if "appeasement" counts as a root cause for terrorism, because meeting the demands of hijackers and kidnappers encouraged (and paid for) further attacks.

Posted by: Debbye at 05:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

June 29 - The election is over, and the Liberals have been re-elected but to a minority government.

I am deeply embarassed that Laurel and Hardy of the American left came up here to intervene - Ralph Nader urged voters not to regard voting NDP as vote splitting, and Michael Moore spoke out about how it is better to vote Liberal no matter how troubling that act may be.

No members of the American right pulled that stunt, but you can bet there would have been loud screaming had they done so.

Attack ads and fear-mongering work up here, as Toronto voters swallowed their outrage at the corruption of the Liberal Party and voted "for the devils they knew" who will likely form a minority government with the New Democratic Party -who are even further to the left of the Liberals (No looking back.)

Promises of federal funds for Toronto - the transit system, SARS relief, black-out relief, homelessness relief, you name it, it got promised relief - resulted in the ridings going completely to the Liberals and NDP and it looks as though much of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) went the same.

Damian did live blogging of the elections, which makes for interesting reading (even though I knew the results before I got home from work) and the comments have some interesting analysis, including some discussion as to whether the Liberal Party-NDP coalition will hold and, if not, whether another election could be called in two years (although I have my doubts that a Conservative Party-Bloc Quebecois coalition would have held much longer than that, too.)

Olivia Chow lost her bid for a federal seat, which is good and bad because it means Toronto is still stuck with her ...

The CBC has an election round-up and you can link to the individual ridings, but I'm trying to find a freaking map because I am very curious as to how the Conservative Party did outside of the GTA.

I've had a virus thingy and am still somewhat under the weather (that's an indirect way of saying I feel like hell but made it to work) but I found a crappy map thingy at CTV (scroll down to Provincial Breakdown) and it says Ontario went 44.7% to the Liberals for 75 seats and 31.5% to the Conservatives for 24 seats.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:03 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 403 words, total size 3 kb.

June 25 - Acronyms are inescapable. I've registered for my share of courses from Professor TBA and we've also got BYOBs, ETAs and RTWTs permanently embedded in our vocabularies.

It's quick communication, and you'd think there would be kind respect sent their way.

Unfortunately, guys, it appears you just lost a biggie.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 54 words, total size 1 kb.

June 24 - Sorry for the light posting. I have some excuses ...

I woke up to Wolf Blitzer talking about Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's apology for saying that reporters in Iraq spend their time in luxurious hotels. M'kay. I guess he had to apologize, because that's the 3rd American pastime (after baseball and lawsuits) but saying that reporters are in a dangerous profession doesn't change the fact that far too many of them are pontificating, lazy and smug.

But then Wolf brings in Christianne Amanpour, and I comment to Mark (who is hogging the computer) that Amanpour is mad at Wolfowitz.

"He's my hero," announced Mark.

"Mine too," I replied. "Are you through with the computer?" (He wasn't.)

I got some quick posts in before I ran into this at Let It Bleed, in which Bob is quoting Toronto Star's Harron Siddiqui asserting that Bill Graham is inspirational. I kid you not.

I just naturally had to share that with the family, so we spent an enjoyable hour thinking of ways in which Graham inspires us. (Those ways are not suitable for printing.)

By the way, I neglected to link to an unforgettable item from Sunday's post, Laughing in the Cheap Seats:

Presumably any woman who dares to disagree with Mallick's assessment of impending "disaster" is not a "real" woman. Sort of like how, for the left, Clarence Thomas or Colin Powell aren't "really" black. Again, though, let's focus on Mallick's contention that Canada would be a "lan[d] of women slapped down".

Now, to be fair, Mallick is actually doing Canadians a great service, by pointing this out. Because not a lot of people know that one of the most important elements of the Conservative plan is to replace the national anthem: out with "O Canada", and in with The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up". True story. It's on page 14 of their platform. Okay, I made that last bit up: the new anthem will actually be Al-D's "Bitches and Hoes".

It's raining, which has come to signal my departure for work. I'm a regular rain-magnet these days (and cursed by minor baseball coaches everywhere) but it is my Friday.

I have some unanswered mail, so apologize to those who have kindly written me and will answer tomorrow morning.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 430 words, total size 3 kb.

June 24 - The death and injury toll in Iraq continues to climb as those who oppose Iraq self-rule target the men and women who would provide security for their own country (92 killed in multiple attacks in Iraq.)

If the media (and Michael Moore) weren't so obsessed with their Bush-hatred, maybe they would see, as I do, that those Iraqis who are signing up to become part of and defend the new Iraq are the true inheritors of the Minutemen legacy.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:52 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 88 words, total size 1 kb.

June 24 - A bomb exploded on a bus in Istanbul and police suspect it detonated prematurely while being transported to another location (Turkey bus explosion kills four.) A smaller blast earlier in Ankara wounded two.

A NATO summit will be held in Istanbul early next week.

Posted by: Debbye at 06:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 55 words, total size 1 kb.

June 23 - I've tried to play down the US election somewhat until the Canadian election is over, but Michael Moore hasn't shown similar restraint and has linked the two elections.

A post over at Belmont Club puts quite a hurting on Moore and his fellow progressives by looking at their real grievance against the U.S. President and those who support them (The Revolution Within the Revolution) and, by extension, the Conservative Party of Canada:

The particular venom with which the Liberals regard President Bush is at heart a reaction to what they perceive as a coup d'etat directed against the carefully constructed edifice of their historical achievements. To understand why the President and individuals like Paul Wolfowitz are described as "illegitimate", one should not, like the man who doesn't get the reference, look to the Florida chads or US Supreme Court decisions. Liberals are not talking about that kind of statutory legitimacy. Rather they are referring to what is perceived as a brazen attempt to negate the cultural equivalent of the Brezhnev doctrine, the idea that certain "progressive" modes of behavior, once attained, are irreversible. In this view, an entire set of attitudes, commonly referred to as "political correctness" and their institutional expressions, like the United Nations, have become part of a social contract, part of an unwritten constitution.

[...]

In the days following September 11, the Liberals watched aghast as America went to war -- when that had been abolished! -- against Muslims in the Third World, all but twitching away the hapless figures of France and the United Nations in the process. (Emphasis added.)

There are some serious threats to us, yet when we should be debating issues, we are dodging mud. Liberals and Democrats are shaming themselves during these elections and the voters should be outraged.

By the way, A Chick Names Marzi eviscerates Moore to the delight of us who can never read enough Moore bashing (via this post at Moore Watch.)

Read them all. I'm off to work.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 369 words, total size 3 kb.

June 23 - Law enforcement agencies in Britain are openly acknowledging that honour killings are a problem there (Police chiefs try to end 'honour killings' with review of 100 murders.)

Police are to review more than 100 murders in an attempt to understand and prevent "honour killings", it was announced yesterday.

The examination of 117 cases believed to be honour killings, which are classified as murders "motivated by perceived dishonour to a family or community", was welcomed by an Asian community leader.

The majority of victims were women, with many from south Asia, though there were some from Africa, eastern Europe and Arab countries.

Scotland Yard announced the initiative amid growing evidence that women in the Asian community are being subjected to violence and sometimes murdered for defying cultural traditions.

Their perceived crimes can include wanting to go to university, refusing an arranged marriage, having a boyfriend or dressing in western-style clothing.

In 2000 the United Nations estimated that 5,000 women worldwide were killed every year because they had allegedly brought shame on their families or communities.

But women's rights groups and Asian leaders believe the figure hugely underestimates the scale of the problem.

Ram Gidoomal is the chairman of the South Asian Development Partnership, a charity that aims to overcome divisions in ethnic communities, and author of the book Sari 'n' Chips. He welcomed the review but said it should include suicide victims.

"Many more people are driven to suicide because of the 'dishonour' that is purported to have been brought on the family," he said.

"The attempted suicide rate among young Asian women is four times the national average, and with men, too, it is rising."

[...]

Scotland Yard announced its review as officers from across Europe gathered at The Hague to discuss ways of tackling honour killings.

On the same show, Greer, famed for leading the feminist revolution with her The Female Eunuch, offered a nutty excuse for Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving cars.

"I get a bit worried about certain heavily veiled ladies driving because they have no peripheral vision at all," she said. "You can understand why in some countries they are not allowed to drive."

Oh, so that's why. And women are beheaded there because . . .?

The Official Feminist Movement jumped the shark long ago. Time to take back what is ours: the right to speak about ourselves for ourselves, and to celebrate our own diversity, that being our right to be individually individual.

Posted by: Debbye at 06:49 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 535 words, total size 4 kb.

June 23 - There had been warnings that the Chechnyan rebels would launch a new military offensive, but the large number of attackers was a surprise (Dozens die as Chechen rebels sweep into city.)

CNN is putting the death toll at 92, and says at least three towns in southern Ingushetia were attacked.

Col. Ilya Shabalkin, head of the press service for Anti-Terrorist Operations in the Caucasus, told CNN the attacks were carried out by 50 to 100 fighters that included Chechen, Ingush and "possibly" foreign fighters. An Interior Ministry source told Interfax that about 200 rebels took part.

Shabalkin said the acting head of the Ingush Interior Ministry was among the dead. He said the fighters wanted to call attention to themselves to attract money from international terrorist organizations.

those responsible for the deadly attacks should be "found and destroyed. Those whom it is possible to take alive must be handed over to the courts."

Initial reports put the number of attackers at 200-300, but the Gzt.ru website on June 23 quoted "an informed source in the Russian power structures" as saying that up to 1,500 fighters participated in the raids, with at least 80 of them involved in the attack on the Interior Ministry building in Nazran alone. According to the website, some 20 other installations around the republic were attacked. An unnamed source close to the investigation now under way into the attacks told Interfax that the goal of the attackers, who were outfitted in spetsnaz special forces uniforms and ski-masks, was to kill law-enforcement personnel. (Interfax, June 23)

Reports on the attackers' origins have been contradictory. A spokesman for the Ingushetian branch of the FSB, Aleksei Baigushkin, said that foreigners, including Turks and Algerians, were involved, but that Chechens formed the attacking group's "backbone." Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Yakovlev, said that prior to the attacks, the fighters had trickled into Ingushetia from neighboring Chechnya and North Ossetia. An unnamed official in North Ossetia's Interior Ministry, however, categorically denied Yakovlev's assertion, saying, "We don't have such fighters". (Newsru.com, June 22)

An Ingushetian traffic policeman who was briefly detained by some of the fighters told the independent Ingushetiya.ru website that all of them spoke Ingush and that while their faces were covered by masks, he could tell by their voices that they were young. The traffic policeman said that after he was released, fighters who were also Ingush stopped him several times on the way into Nazran. "They said that they were getting revenge for murders and kidnappings of their friends," the traffic policeman told the website. "And that they were killing employees of [the Ingushetian police's] criminal investigation [department], spetsnaz and OMON [special police units] for helping the Russian special services". (Ingushetiya.ru, June 22)

Likewise, Rossiiskaya Gazeta cited local residents as saying that the attackers were Ingush, "which partially refutes the version about the invasion from Chechnya," and quoted a Russian special services source as denying that they had also crossed over from North Ossetia. "According to our source, most likely no one came from anywhere," the government newspaper reported. "In the evening, people simply put on camouflage clothing, took weapons out of hiding places and went out to the streets to fight". (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, June 23)

[...]

A Nazran resident told Ingushetiya.ru that he had spoken to some of the fighters involved in the attack on the Interior Ministry building, who identified themselves as Ingush. They claimed they had "persuaded" Basayev to carry out the attacks in order to "teach a lesson" to the Interior Ministry, FSB and other special services units that have reportedly been involved in "extra-judicial punishment" and kidnappings in Ingushetia.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 660 words, total size 5 kb.

June 23 - Via Instapundit, it seems that Rumsfeld has been vindicated, but will this receive as much coverage as the accusations? This post at Captain's Quarters links to a CNN report which, after giving full coverage to those who cannot conceive that the wrongdoers at Abu Ghraib prison might have exercised free will in their misconduct, admits that their unnamed informant has changed the story as to what was and what was not approved by the Pentagon:

Meanwhile, a source told CNN that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld never approved a controversial interrogation technique called "water boarding." That source had told CNN the opposite Monday.

The senior defense official who provided the original information to CNN now says Rumsfeld only approved "mild, noninjurious physical contact" with a high-level al Qaeda detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and specifically did not approve a request to use water boarding.

The tactic involves strapping a prisoner down and immersing him in water to make the subject feel as though he is drowning.

The documents released Tuesday, as described by administration officials, help to show what ideas were discussed versus what was actually rubber-stamped by the White House in terms of the legal limits of interrogation.

"We want to drive home what was approved and what was speculated about. It is a distinction that has been lost," one official told CNN.

Senior administration officials say there were a lot of "academic" musings or "opinion" memos written after the terrorist attacks about how to apply interrogation laws and rules to the war on terrorism.

One official said it was "uncharted territory," and people at various agencies were trying to figure out how to deal with its legalities.

Mild, noninjurious physical contact such as grabbing someone's arm, poking them in the chest or light shoving.

Posted by: Debbye at 09:22 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 393 words, total size 3 kb.

June 23 - The Ontario legislature is set to approve a law that requires hospitals to report gunshot wounds to police (Call cops over gun wounds, docs told):

ONTARIO HOSPITALS will become the first in Canada required to report patients with gunshot wounds to police, under new legislation being introduced today. Government sources said Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter will table a bill today in the wake of growing support from Ontario doctors to make such reporting mandatory.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 111 words, total size 1 kb.

June 23 - Op-ed by William Safire in today's NY Times with some attention to the Congressional investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program - UNSCAM to most, and The Great Cash Cow to others.

One whistleblower's account states that the U.N.'s contracted inspector, Cotecna of Switzerland, was the key to getting luxury items off-loaded at the port of Umm Qasr:

"Ships were lined up at the port of Umm Qasr, stacks of containers already onshore waiting for inspection. You won't believe the grease being paid. The usual suspects got preferential treatment when the U.N. bosses in New York called the BNP [Paribas] bank to get Cotecna to issue a C.O.A. [Confirmation of Arrival] to release the money."

However, my call for a Congressional subpoena to overcome his [Annan's] attempt to limit investigation to his internal Volcker committee has flushed out a fact not hitherto disclosed. Annan's press aide complained to The Times that a subpoena had already been served secretly on BNP Paribas (the initials once stood for Banque Nationale de Paris) by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Although the U.N. had warned its bank, as well as Cotecna, the oil monitor Saybolt and all its other oil-for-food contractors, not to cooperate with anybody but Paul Volcker — and had blown off the House International Relations Committee's requests — Annan's advisers knew it would be unseemly and foolhardy to insist that its bank fight the Senate in court.

With his subpoena and investigation thus publicly revealed by the U.N., Chairman Norm Coleman of Minnesota, a Brooklyn-born Republican, felt free to take my call. "This is a major priority for us," he says. "There's a lot of stuff to cover, a big universe of documents, and we're being aggressive about it. Yes, Cotecna, Saybolt, all of them."

He sent out four "chairman's letters," countersigned by the ranking Democrat, Carl Levin, in early June. One was to the U.S. State Department for the minutes of the "661 committee" meetings at the U.N., which reviewed oil-for-food contracts (though not yet for copies of the contracts themselves). Another to the Government Accounting Office, which had first estimated the skimming at $10 billion. Another to Paul Bremer in Baghdad for copies of documents being turned over to the interim government — and the Senate still awaits a response; apparently the White House doesn't want to offend the U.N. Finally, a friendly letter to Annan about the subpoena that would require his bank to open its letter-of-credit files.

But this is where it really gets interesting:

But since this involves possible fraud, bribery and larceny on a grand scale, where is law enforcement? Interesting: the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, David Kelley, served subpoenas last week on Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco and Valero about Iraqi oil purchases. That deals with the income side of the scandal, the money for Iraq (less kickbacks) supposedly to buy food.

I suspect Kelley was moved to empanel a grand jury by probable competition from the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morganthau, on the scandal's payoff side. These two offices compete, and Morganthau's office has expertise on global banking.

In a counterattack, our global servants hired an accountant to warn of "fraudulent acts" by the U.S. after it took over the U.N.'s mismanaged Iraqi oil account. Now, that will get media coverage.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 697 words, total size 5 kb.

June 22 - Heartbreaking news: South Korean hostage beheaded.

One question: have we come to the point where we can be as anguished about this young man as we were about American hostages who have met the same fate?

I hope so. Terrorism is an attack on all free people, and until we realize that, we won't be truly engaged in fighting it.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:09 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

June 22 - Another reality check for anyone who believes the U.N. is capable of leading in the cause of human rights: 45 corpses, all killed because of their skin colour: Genocide in Sudan. Families head for the hills to escape the murdering Janjaweed Arabs.

The U.N. is capable of only one thing: international hand wringing.

I am not prepared to place my safety in their hands.

(Via Jack's Newswatch.)

Posted by: Debbye at 08:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 72 words, total size 1 kb.

June 22 - Ghost of a Flea caught something that did slip many of us by, an article in the Chicago Sun-Times that proves that those who are journalists should look a little harder at themselves before attacking (Flea: Hitler.)

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and Canada, yet it seems to me that articles like the one in the Sun-Times would tend to encourage notions of an International Jewish Conspiracy, which I hardly think is the president's fault unless he is being accused of appointing too many people with Jewish surnames to his administration (and what the hell is that about, anyway? I recognize German surnames, but how does one know they are Jewish?) and if that's a criticism, it implies that those who object are anti-Semitic.

In plain English: since when do Americans judge a person's politics and motives by their surname or colour of their skin? Those who bandy words like neo-con and hint that it has Jewish roots are doing more harm to our country's ideals than the terrorists could possible achieve, or, if you prefer, are helping the terrorists achieve their aims, one of which is for the USA to stop supporting Israel.

It never escaped most of us that the war on terror would, by necessity, have to take on Arafat. That unprincipled scoundrel failed to take President Bush's Road Map seriously; this was not only anticipated but expected, but what Arafat didn't understand was that it was indeed his last chance to be relevant. Now he sits amid the rubble. Who says there is no justice?

The worst anyone can really say about President Bush is that he says what he means and means what he says. So they accuse him of failing to lie! Only a fool could think that a failure in leadership.

Who didn't understand that removing Saddam also removed a major financier of terrorism directed against Israelis? The Palestinians certainly understood it, and those who chose to duck that fact again reveal more about themselves and their anti-Semitism than than any laboured comparisons of President Bush to Hitler.

Who leaked information that the redacted portions of the 2002 report on terrorism covered up Saudi complicity? Was it by chance Democrats? So who is inciting hatred and suspicion?

And yet the staff of the Sept. 11 Commission has found no evidence that top Saudi officials have given money to al Qaeda (No Saudi Payment to Qaeda Is Found.)

The new account, based on 19 months of staff work, asserts flatly that there is "no evidence" that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials financed the group, which is led by Osama bin Laden.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:12 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 1207 words, total size 8 kb.

June 22 - One of the strangest aspects of life in Canada is the intense regionalism. Not because regionalism is strange (at least to someone of my age who grew up in the American West) but because the federal government tends to encourage it and all the divisive antagonisms that it involves.

You see, it comes in handy during election campaigns. So what if lies must be spread to keep the distrust at full agitation level, as Ezra Levant recounts in this column, Anti-Alberta bigotry:

So last week, Martin blasted Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, calling Klein's health-care reform package un-Canadian. "Unlike Stephen Harper, I will look Ralph Klein in the eye and I will say 'no.'," ranted Martin. From Ontario, of course -- not over the phone to Klein privately, not in a memo, but at an election event, using federal-provincial relations as a desperate partisan weapon. "Unlike Stephen Harper, I will defend medicare," he said -- defending it against Klein, the new Liberal demon.

Although nearly every province has private health-care facilities, Martin chose to attack only Alberta.

He did not criticize Ontario and Quebec, with their burgeoning private hospitals. Ontario and Quebec are run by Liberal governments.

The government of Alberta has kept Martin briefed about their proposed changes for months. Martin has never raised an objection, and Anne McLellan, the deputy prime minister, has repeatedly approved of such changes.

So there was no reason to criticize Klein's plans at all -- at least until they provided a scapegoat for the Liberals. And if Klein's plans provide a scapegoat, so do all the other provinces.

Given that the Liberal Party proclaims Canadian unity as their sole objective, why would they make statements that encourage anti-Quebec sentiments unless they prefer a Canada divided and thus weak?

But then we can't have the Liberals running on their record, now can we.

Posted by: Debbye at 06:31 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 345 words, total size 2 kb.

1 My family is from B.C. and I lived there for a number of years as well. I'm not sure who my father's family liked least: Americans or Easterners. No one either side of my family had any use for Ontario or Quebec, and that was a fairly common sentiment in general. So, a few years ago, I finally visit the dreaded "East" and Nin and I stayed at this lovely lodge in the Haliburton Highlands (run by former French nobility no less)(nicest French folk I've ever met actually) and we chatted quite a bit with this ON couple before and after dinners. We'd had a few glasses of wine and I finally mentioned my predisposition to not trust a thing east of Manitoba. They laughed and laughed, and the husband assured me that he knew peoplel from the West thought anyone from ON, especially TO, was evil incarnate I told them I would be glad to report back that that was not the case.

Posted by: Ith at June 22, 2004 06:57 PM (C7QsI)

2 Ith, that lodge wouldn't just happen to be "The Domain of Killien", would it? (Forgive my vulgar curiosity; I've heard good things about it

Posted by: Jim at June 23, 2004 09:40 AM (MMmaD)

3 Jim, it would! That's kind of scary that you knew and all It is WONDERFUL! Just for the bread alone, it was worth it. I very much want to go back one day. I can't recall a much better stay anywhere else.

Posted by: Ith at June 23, 2004 11:17 AM (C7QsI)

4 Mmm, bread. You just can't match a proper loaf of bread, especially when you can smell it fresh from the oven. I've never been west of Ontario in Canada, but I've been to the east coast and love Cape Breton Island. You'd love it, Ith, especially with the heavy Scots influence. (Wait, I seem to recollect that you have been there?) The coastline is much like that of Northern California: rugged, mountainous and heavily wooded. It brings back some fine memories. Of course, Ontario looks down its nose at the Martimes, too.

Posted by: Debbye at June 23, 2004 07:47 PM (RtUPc)

5 I was in Halifax to see Nigel Bennett in Hamlet. Ummm, March of 2000 I believe. Loved Nova Scotia! and Cape Breton is a place I really want to visit. The bread at Killian is to die for. Fresh baked baguettes in the evening, fresh baked croissants in the morning with homemade jam. And they'll pack you a picnic lunch with a sandwich made from a baguette. Nin's fave was the smoked ham and grueyere (sp?) cheese. We were there in the fall, and the owner told me I had to come back in the winter because I had a good chance of seeing the local wolf pack. One day!!

Posted by: Ith at June 23, 2004 09:40 PM (C7QsI)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

June 22 - Earl McCrae of the Ottawa Sun interviews a Canadian soldier who delivers a blistering attack on PM Martin and all those who are trying to redefine the military and their role in PM outdated, not our troops:

"I voluntarily became a soldier knowing that it might one day mean me losing my life for Canada. Can Martin say that? When did he ever serve? He's a fat cat billionaire without a clue about what it means to be a soldier. What he said was an insult to every man and woman in this country in uniform. All of them better Canadians than him. But what's he care? Our military size has been so shrunk he figures the Liberals don't need their votes to win."

The soldier was reacting to a front-page newspaper story he read on the weekend in which Martin, during an interview, attacked Conservative leader Stephen Harper's plans for the Canadian military. Martin, according to the article, saying Harper would impose a warlike "ready aye ready" philosophy that is out of vogue in today's Canadian society.

"I went ballistic. Harper never served, either, but he's a hell of a lot more understanding and realistic as to what the armed forces should be than that ignorant fool Martin. As for outdated, it's old Martin who's outdated. What does he think the role of Canadian soldiers is? To hand out candies? Carry toy guns? Just sit around and watch? Being trained and ready to fight and kill the enemy in the defence of freedom is what soldiers willingly do.

"Men and women aren't forced to sign up, they sign up because they're willing and want to be warriors, and somebody tell Martin they're damn fine people, not thugs like he makes it sound. He insults every soldier in this country as well as their families."

The soldier slammed the Liberals' anti-Harper ad on TV portraying him as a warmonger. "The Canadian soldiers jumping out of armoured personnel carriers and attacking with their weapons -- just what the hell is wrong with that? They're soldiers, for krissake. Does the scene turn Martin's weak, little, stomach? Does he hope Canadians will puke with disgust over it? If they do, then we're a nation of pussycats and in real trouble.

The Liberal Party has treated the Canadian Forces abominably. There are a lot of weepy words on Rememberance Day but little else. Their refusal to fund and equip the Canadian Forces should have had a detrimental affect on recruitment yet we still have steadfast volunteers, especially since Sept. 11, of excellent men and women who understand that their beloved Canada is at risk and are willing to defend and protect it.

I've made no secret of my respect and gratitude for all those who serve, but I have to admit a slightly higher awe for the Canadian soldier, who despite the lack of respect they are accorded by the current government, have done whatever they were asked cheerfully and made do with what they had or could procure, including scrounging up paint in Afghanistan to provide suitable camouflage for desert terrain on their blankets and uniforms. (For Americans: there were no uniforms available for desert terrain, so they painted their forest green uniforms and blankets with desert colours.)

I think the Liberals have underestimated the loyalty and pride the Canadian people accord to their armed forces. Martin's unfortunate comments were meant to be a shot at Harper's support for the USA in Iraq, but the shot went astray and struck at the courage and readiness of the Canadian soldier.

(Via Jack's Newswatch.)

Posted by: Debbye at 05:44 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 614 words, total size 4 kb.

June 20 - Sorry about the light posting. The Sunday-Monday period is a rough one due to even odder hours those days, but there is one quick item I wanted to bring up before I go to work this evening.

THE PROVINCIAL Liberals are wasting time and money on a redundant plan for an anti-child porn tip line while dragging their feet on funding for vital resources, frustrated cops said yesterday. "We've been told behind the scenes that we're not getting any money, but nothing's been made official yet," said one officer, who asked not to be named out of fear of having a funding application denied.

Several police agencies province-wide, including Hamilton, Sudbury, Ottawa, Peel and Toronto, have applied to Attorney General Michael Bryant's office for grant money through the Victim Justice Fund to fight child pornography.

But it's been months and they still don't have answers.

Despite this, Liberals have moved to close child porn gap, the issue about child porn in Canada is not only about the laws that are on the books regarding child porn but about how the law is enforced and how the issue is handled when it seemingly conflicts with privacy laws. When there are convictions, the sentence is too often confinement to one's home.

A related issue is a national DNA registry for convicted sex offenders. The national government finally got onboard with the notion after provinces, including Ontario, chose to by-pass the national procastrinators and build their own databanks and allow one another access. Unfortunately, the databank only includes convictions secured after the law was passed rather than include those who are currently serving sentences for sex offenses.

Harper is not backing down on the issue of whether short stories and hand-drawn pictures should be defined as child porn or have "artistic merit" and I am fairly certain that the majority of Canadians share his views and are unimpressed by the belated stance of the Liberal Party.

I caught a CBC Newsworld bit early this morning which announced they were going to explore how Harper is wading into dangerous territory by promoting family values. I need to sleep more than I needed to rant but the phrasing of that promo only reinforced my view that the CBC is dangerously out of step with most Canadians.

Re-uniting families is a favourite theme of our Immigration policies, but Harper is dangerous because he promotes family values? Someone more nuanced than I might be able to work out that apparent contradiction.

More tomorrow.

June 22 - 17:46: Lorrie Goldstein takes on the Liberals' record on crime today and cuts to the heart of it (Sorry, but the Liberals ARE soft on crime):

No, Mr. Martin, no fair-thinking person believes you support child porn. But what many of us believe is that your government has failed to seriously address this issue, along with countless others, when it comes to fixing our criminal justice system. And that after 11 years, enough is enough.

Posted by: Debbye at 08:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 519 words, total size 4 kb.

June 19 - A common feature over at Ghost of a Flea has been posts that begin "Now is the time at the Flea when we dance" and then the link is to something weird and/or funny.

There's been another dance going on up here, and it is somehow appropriate that Flea is the one who signals an end to that dance and suggests we confront the potential for a terrorist attack here in Canada right before the June 28 elections in his post titled evocatively March 11.

He's right - if one occurs, we'd best be prepared:

It is important to understand the shock that will ensue if and when Canada is attacked. The feelings of anger that follow could be turned to a resolute determination to stand up for responsible government and liberty. These same feelings can all too easily be twisted. We know what the media elites of this country have done with every story in the last two years of conflict. We can only imagine they will be ready to distort any atrocity to serve their own ends.

We need our arguments ready.

Posted by: Debbye at 11:28 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 190 words, total size 1 kb.

June 19 - CNN Breaking News Alert atop the page at this moment reads Coalition says it destroyed a safehouse used by alleged terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah, Iraq. Details soon.

Do you suppose the breaking news has any connection to this story: Hospital: 17 Iraqis killed in Fallujah airstrike?

Posted by: Debbye at 11:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 1 kb.