Feb. 22 - The next Ambassador to the U.S., Frank McKenna, has been appearing before the Commons [Parliament] foreign affairs committee and has some interesting observations. McKenna: Canada, U.S. 'never more different'. Some excerpts:

Canadians shouldn't worry about their sovereignty because in many ways this country and the United States have never been further apart, says the next ambassador to Washington.

McKenna thinks the U.S. should back off on criticisms of Canadian marijuana decriminalization. He worries about the gulf between Canadian and American understanding of one another. And he believes the two countries can't do enough to harmonize their shared border.

"I don't think I've ever seen the countries, in many ways, more different," McKenna told the committee.

"We're going in a very different direction from the United States of America."

By example, he cited legislative measures such as same-sex marriage, gun control and pot decriminalization.

And he said Canada's "whole approach with respect to preserving the social structure, social security in Canada, is dramatically different from the direction of the United States of America.

"We just seem to be much further apart than we've ever been before. So my view is Canadians have done a good job of protecting our cultural integrity and our sovereignty."

There are links to two older articles about McKenna: new Canadian Ambassador to the United States and Toronto Sun: NEWS - New envoy is frank.

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Feb. 22 - It's good to see that Bill Cosby is staying on message and advising kids to Get an education. Be responsible. Make a difference.

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Feb. 22 - Readers will pardon anything resembling the vapours and assign it to those delicate sensibilities to which we female bloggers are said to be prone. You see, the writer in the linked article seems to lean toward the notion that the political blogosphere is just too danged uncivilized for us frail, weak females.

He never seems to wonder why women should be poli-bloggers, though. He seems to take it as a given, yet if he understood anything about real - as opposed to popular - feminism, he would recognize that he broke Rule #1 : don't tell us what to do, think, or aspire to.

I first read about this when I read Ilyka's response following a link from Ith (I'll return to Ith for the last word.) Do yourselves a favour and read Ilyka's response - it's funny, well-targeted and well-written.

Meryl turns up the heat with basic fact-checking making it two women that can kick the stuffing (and stuffiness) out of paternalistic men.

21:22: Make that four: Andrea and Michelle. I'm sure there are more, but my poor head is beginning to ache with all this unseemly unpleasantness so I'm going to pour a stiff drink make some tea to soothe my jangled nerves.

Ilkya declares it's Estrogen Week. Just keep scrolling (wonderful banner by another favourite female blogger) and enjoy the posts and comments.

Now, having dispatched the self-indulgent fussing over how few of us there are back to those men who have fixated on it as an "issue," there is another issue that actually does concern us which Ith targets in a chilling post on the lost Voices of Muslim women who do not get a choice in what to do, think, or aspire to and, too often, are not even permitted life.

All the liberal men who want to "advance our cause," "open the doors of opportunity" and "smash the glass ceiling" are, to be blunt, f***ing cowards. They are picking acceptable, soft targets instead of the single hardest one: the way Islamists and fundamentalists (who are deemed above criticism by the culturally sensitive types) treat women.

You want to be on my side and advance my cause? Help my sisters, dammit. I can help myself!

Then connect the dots and realize, finally, that only bringing democracy to the Mid-east will begin to loosen the chains that shackle Muslim women.

Feb. 23 - My, my, the source article was changed by stealth without noting "update" or any of the other conventions bloggers use.

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Feb. 22 - Two posts over at Daimnation are well worth reading and considering in tandem. The first presents a series of accusations that are so laughable that they and the accusers are easy to dismiss, and the second demonstrates how hysteria coupled with "experts" can ruin lives and reputations.

The accusations being leveled about suspected sub-text and hidden messages in Shrek 2 require stretching the imagination so far that the actual story line is forgotten, but it's precisely the story that children will pick up on and remember. If there was a hidden message within Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie, my kids failed to pick up on it. But then, I failed to pick up on any sub-text in The Odd Couple (maybe because there wasn't any!)

Children, blessedly, are not as paranoid as adults. I guess paranoia is one of those things that have to be taught.

But how wise are we to shrug off such accusations, however absurd they may be?

The next post, an excellent book review of No Crueler Tyrannies by Dorothy Rabinowitz demonstrates the horror and character assassination that occurs when hysteria (and dubious experts) take command over common sense. Although the book focuses on the hysteria about satanic rituals and sexual abuse in day care centers, the lesson is broader:

Witchhunts tend to backfire in the long run, as people start to assume the witches never existed in the first place. McCarthy’s anti-Communist buffoonery in the 1950s forever discredited anti-Communism (which explains all these execrable Che Guevara T-shirts), and “ritual abuse” hysteria has done almost incalculable damage to the fight against child abuse. It was only in the Fells Acres era that real stories of long-buried abuse were coming to light – notably at the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland – and it would be an unforgivable sin if we start ignoring these hideous crimes again. But when so many police officers, child-welfare officials, prosecutors and “experts” have shown their willingness to lie and railroad innocent people, what are we supposed to believe?

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Feb. 21 - I must really need some sleep (or perhaps wading through two feet of snow to get home has brought out my inner wacky.) Whatever the case, the main webpage for today's Telegraph features some, er, unusual headings:

Confused Spaniards vote for EU Constitution

Primates Show Anger

Girl's name for third Beckham boy

Bush likes gays and smoked pot (Heh. Not a surprise!)

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Feb. 21 - The Beirut judge heading up the inquiry into Hariri's murder, Rachid Mezher, said yesterday that the killers "had been recruited from Islamist groups linked to Syria and operating against the US-led coalition in Iraq" and believed to have travelled to Lebanon through Syria from Iraq. Mezher further stated that he finds credible the claim by Victory and Jihad in Greater Syria that they were responsible for Harir's assassination.

Abu Adas, 23, a Palestinian Lebanese believed to have fled the country, attended two Beirut mosques known to be recruiting grounds for the Ansar al-Islam group, linked to the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Investigators suspect that the mosques have ties to Sheikh Abderrazak, a Damascus cleric who has helped fighters travel through Syria to Iraq. The Beirut attack bore similarities to suicide bombings carried out in Iraq by al-Zarqawi, who has increasingly strong ties to al-Qaeda.

"We know that Adas had Saudi Arabian nationality and used his passport to travel to Iraq and Syria," said Judge Mezher in his only interview with a British newspaper.

Thousands of people staged an Anti-Syria protest in Beirut today calling for immediate withdrawal of Syrian troops.

Monday's crowd was mainly comprised of Christians and members of the Druse community, and police reportedly set up checkpoints leading into the city from the predominantly Druse Chouf region and along the city's main northern entrances, where many Christians were coming from.

The protesters included men and women of all ages. Many were wearing red and white scarves, a symbol of the movement calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

A significant security presence was also on the streets, with about 300 officers armed with M-16 rifles and AK-47 assault rifles.

Sometimes the insistent desire to be free whispers and sometimes it shouts, but it is never silent.

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Feb. 20 - This 6+ minutes film is worth watching: ARMOR GEDDON: Fallujah THE Movie.

There's a bit of tech involved, so I recommend reading this if the word Torrent in compu-speak means little to nothing to you.

(Via One Hand Clapping)

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Feb. 20 - Mark Steyn's regular column in The Western Standard was on Canada's least-known person, Paul Desmarais:

... there has indeed been a Canadian making a difference in the world-and if The National wanted to do a 133-part special report on him, for once they’d have enough material. Most of us know Paul Desmarais as the . . . [those ellipses in original] well, let’s hold it there: most Canadians don’t know Paul Desmarais at all. You could stop the first thousand people walking down Yonge Street and I’ll bet no one would know who he is. But the few who do know him know him as the kingmaker behind Trudeau, Mulroney, Chrétien and Martin. Jean Chrétien’s daughter is married to Paul Desmarais’s son. Paul Martin was an employee of M. Desmarais’s Power Corp., and his Canada Steamship Lines was originally a subsidiary of Power Corp. that M. Desmarais put Mr. Martin in charge of. In other words, Paul Martin’s public identity--successful self-made businessman, not just a career pol, knows how to meet payroll, etc.--is entirely derived from the patronage of M. Desmarais.

Imagine if Jenna Bush married the chairman of HalliburtonÂ’s son, and then George W. Bush was succeeded by a president whoÂ’d been an employee of Halliburton: Michael MooreÂ’s next documentary would be buried under wall-to-wall Oscars and Palmes dÂ’Or. But M. Desmarais has managed to turn Ottawa into a company town without anyone being aware of the company. .. Power Corp.Â’s other alumni range from Quebec premiers to CanadaÂ’s most prominent international diplomat, Maurice Strong. In fairness, you donÂ’t have to work for M. Desmarais to reach the top of the greasy pole-Kim Campbell managed it, for about a week and a half.

we’re in the middle of the UN Oil-for-Fraud investigation, the all-time biggest scam, bigger than Enron and Worldcom and all the rest added together. And whaddaya know? The bank that handled all the money from the program turns out to be BNP Paribas, which tends to get designated by Associated Press and co. as a “French bank” but is, as it happens, controlled by one of M. Desmarais’s holding companies. That alone should cause even the droopiest bloodhound to pick up a scent: the UN’s banker for its Iraqi “humanitarian” program turns out to be (to all intents) Saddam’s favourite oilman.

On a (relatively) lighter note, as the President begins his European tour, Mark Steyn asks and answers the burning question of the day: What's US policy on Europe? No giggling.

What does all this mean? Nothing. In victory, magnanimity – and right now Bush can afford to be magnanimous, even if Europe isn't yet ready to acknowledge his victory. On Thursday, in a discussion of "the greater Middle East", the President remarked that Syria was "out of step". And, amazingly, he's right. Not so long ago, Syria was perfectly in step with the Middle East – it was the archetypal squalid stable Arab dictatorship. Two years on, Syria hasn't changed, but Iraq has, and, to varying degrees, the momentum in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon (where the Syrians have overplayed their hand) is also in the Bush direction. Boy Assad finds himself in the position of the unfortunate soldier in Irving Berlin's First World War marching song, "They Were All Out Of Step But Jim".

The EU isn't the Arab League, though for much of the past three years it's been hard to tell the difference. But it, too, is out of step. The question is whether the Europeans are smart enough, like the savvier Sunnis in Iraq, to realise it. The Washington Post's Fred Hiatt compared the President's inaugural speech with Gerhard Schröder's keynote address to the Munich Conference on Security Policy last week and observed that, while both men talked about the Middle East, terrorism and 21st-century security threats, Mr Bush used the word "freedom" 27 times while Herr Schröder uttered it not once; he preferred to emphasise, as if it were still March 2003 and he were Arab League Secretary-General, "stability" – the old realpolitik fetish the Administration has explicitly disavowed. It's not just that the two sides aren't speaking the same language, but that the key phrases of Mr Bush's vocabulary don't seem to exist in Chirac's or Schröder's.

By the Way, SteynOnline is off it's brief (?!) hiatus and open for your one-stop Steyn reading spot.

Feb. 23 - Austin Bay disagrees with Mark Steyn on the death of the West:

Steyn’s “bleakest last sentence” (to quote Roger Simon) is way too fin d’siecle. Steyn writes: “This week we’re toasting the end of an idea: the death of “the West".” Try and tell that to Ukraine and Poland– and for that matter, Denmark. Post- Theo van Gogh Holland may also object.

Feb. 28 - Mark Steyn responds to Austin Bay here (scroll down.) Very worthwhile read.

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Feb. 20 - From an Australian news agency, Marines aim to secure city of Ramadi:

US and Iraqi troops launched a large-scale operation around the rebellious city of Ramadi today, as part of a nationwide effort to restore order in the wake of last month's election.

Troops from the 1st Marine expeditionary force, supported by Iraqi soldiers, set up a ring of checkpoints around the city, 110km west of Baghdad, and imposed an 8pm to 6am curfew under Operation River Blitz.

[...]

It was not clear if today's operation was a prelude to a larger offensive on Ramadi, which has essentially been in guerrilla hands for most of the past year.

CNN reports the arrests of some persons including one linked to Zarqawi:

Iraqi police arrested Haidar Mulaqatah during a raid in the Maffaraq area of western Baquba, about 30 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province. The area has been a frequent site for insurgent attacks against coalition troops and Iraqi security forces.

Police said they also found weapons, including mortars, and equipment used to make counterfeit identification during the raid.

In another raid near Mosul on Saturday, Iraqi security forces captured another suspected insurgent.

Harbi Abdul Khudier Hammudi, who served as a colonel in the old Iraqi air force, is a leader of the Salafist Jihadist terrorist group and is believed to have been involved in several attacks against coalition forces, including the bombing of an Iraqi national guard convoy last year, police said.

Feb. 21: Canoe News reports

The new operation was under way in several other Euphrates River cities in Anbar, including Heet, Baghdadi, Hadithah and the provincial capital Ramadi, the military said. Hadithah residents reported parts of the city were bombarded by coalition aircraft overnight. There was no word on casualties.

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Feb. 20 - Sometimes I get so angry at the snobbery and elitism portrayed by some that I forget to remember the inherent decency and salt-of-the-earth qualities that are also a daily part of life up here. A case in point in this 9-day game in Edmonton. (The Toronto Sun also carries the story here.)

The previous record of 203 hours had been held by a group in Sudbury, Ontario, and the Edmonton players plan to finish up tomorrow after playing 240 consecutive hours. The score at one point was 1,540-1,360 with Team A leading. Sheesh, can you imagine scoring that game?

This game is being played to raise $200,000 for fighting cancer.

Feb. 21: Final score: "about" 2,500 to 2,300 and they did indeed raise more than $200,000. (Also a minor correction: the CBC link says the game was played in an outdoor rink in Sherwood Park near Edmonton.)

Speaking of long playing records, a brief career of Gordie Howe is in today's Toronto Sun. (If that name only rings a dim bell, think "Gordie Howe Hat Trick," which is a goal, an assist, and a fight.)

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Feb. 20 - Members of the Land Force Western Area returned to Edmonton last night after a 6-month tour in Afghanistan (Hope delivered):

"They kept Kabul, and the region around Kabul, secure in a way that allowed people to start to create normal lives, to start to build houses and invest in their future," said Brig.-Gen. Stu Beare.

"The bottom line, people are making buildings. People are building roads, people are putting in electricity in a country that had none of that during the Taliban era.

"What does that mean? That people have hope, so there's been a huge difference."

Despite the questionable support of the Canadian government, members of the Canadian military have steadfastly adhered to their duties, and as the post below demonstrates, this has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated by the public.

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Feb, 20 - The following speaks for itself:

Letter to the Editor (one day link life) in the Sunday Toronto Sun:

This is an open letter to the individual who anonymously paid for our dinner at The Keg at the Sheppard Centre last Sunday.

As military officers, we accept our duties and responsibilities without thought of receiving thanks from the Canadian public which we serve.

Your gesture that night was truly humbling and encouraging.

To the group of us who benefitted by your generosity, the other patrons and staff at the restaurant, and colleagues of ours who were not present, your thanks that night was an example of tangible proof that Canadians do support the Canadian Forces and the missions it undertakes on behalf of all Canadians.

On behalf of ourselves, and the others you have touched -- thank you.

Major P. Brunberg

Major S. Banerrjee

Major G. Sexton

Captain J. Goetz

Captain T. Underhill

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Feb. 18 - Everyone's covering this, but no one does it like Paul (heh!)

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1 Cheers for the link, Debbye.

Posted by: Paul Jané at February 18, 2005 11:10 PM (FOtPl)

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Feb. 18 - From Rocket Jones, this is the kind of story that separates the fans of the sport from fans of a team: Our Hockey is still going on.

People who love hockey are playing and/or watching other people who love hockey play. Toronto rinks never close ...

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Feb. 18 - Adil Charkaoui, (some background here,) has been freed on $50,000 bail after being held without charges for nearly two years.

Feb. 22: Morocco wants to extradite Charkaoui on the basis of an arrest warrant issued last September, but he says he's being framed.

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Feb. 18 - Sorry about the light posting. It was a day riddled with dumb stuff the dumbest of which was a VHS cassette which partially ejected and then stopped betwixt in and out. It seemed nothing would dislodge it and when I manually pushed it back in it wouldn't engage and the door wouldn't close.

I naturally consulted the user book (which reminds me, I have to fish it out from behind the couch where it landed) and was on the verge of turning the unit upside down and administering a series of smacks on it's, um, backside (think "catsup bottle") but remembered I had some hard plastic pie servers that were slender enough to get in on the top and bottom of the cassette and I finally coaxed it out. Victory!

The moral of this tale is: Never begudge the space given to all the stuff in that kitchen drawer (you know the drawer I mean - the one that has time-saving gadgets, twist ties, and sundry items you never use and can't even identify.)

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Feb. 18 - Religious observances of Ashura in Iraq were again attacked by terrorists leaving at least 27 dead in Iraq blasts. By all accounts, security and police performed well and their efforts - some at the cost of their own lives - reduced the potential death toll of civilians.

I remember the shock of the Ashura terrorist attacks last year only too well. We held our breath, grieved for the dead and wounded, and wondered if a match had been lit. But there was then hope: a march in which Shi'ite and Sunni clerics disavowed sectarian strife:

In an attempt to play down sectarian divisions, Shi'ite Muslim clerics and Sunni preachers led thousands in a march from a Shi'ite suburb in eastern Baghdad to the Kazimiya district where the bombings in the capital occurred.

"We and our Sunni countrymen are, have been and always will be brothers," said Shi'ite preacher Amer al-Hussein, a senior aide to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an outspoken opponent of the U.S.-led occupation.

Members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council also stressed the need for unity between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

"It was a crime directed not only against Shi'ites, or Islam, but against humanity," said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a prominent Shi'ite council member. "Anyone who kills a Sunni is against the spirit of Shi'ism. And anyone who kills a Shi'ite is against the spirit of Sunnism," he said.

Feb. 21: The current death toll has risen to 50 dead in 8 attacks. How incredibly sad.

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Feb. 17 - Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette is home.

Well done, sir. And thank you.

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Feb. 17 - Still no plan on how to implement Kyoto (MPs rip delays on Kyoto) but there is a dandy quote from Opposition Leader Stephen Harper:

If it costs $4 billion to achieve nothing, how much will it cost to achieve something?

Some might think the Canadian taxpayer is a tad jaundiced on the subject of government ad campaigns.

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Feb. 17 - President Bush is just announcing the nomination of John Negroponte as the Director of National Intelligence.

I like it. I haven't closely followed Negroponte's activites as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, but as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. during the run up to and during Operation Iraqi Freedom I was impressed by his consistency and focus.

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