But I have seen this virus before; it devastated a country I loved, a place that nurtured me and raised me up.
In that Canadian day, we called it “Trudeaumania,” the suggestion of “Beatlemania” pop idol glitter being no accident. Even those of us in his Liberal party were powerless to stop the mad embrace millions of Canadians threw around Pierre Elliott Trudeau with his promise of reconciliation of the two founding peoples, a happy era when the English (more correctly, Scottish) heritage would join hands with the French legacy and take us forward into a brave new age. And he’d reforge our relationship with “The Elephant to our South.”
That he was completely non-specific, avoiding policy questions in favour of depending entirely on his style and panache (and goodness knows, he had a surfeit of both) would surely undo him—or so those of us who believed him to be a hard line leftist (because we’d read his essays in Cite Libre and studied his record) reassured ourselves.
Of course, we were wrong; his very lack of specificity was his strength. A brilliant orator, he spun webs around huge crowds, proposing big ideas in obscure terms, making it possible for the listener to impose any dream they wished upon his smiling, Savile Row-suited tabula rasa. He was all things to all people. In service to “party loyalty” and civility, we held our tongues.
And, in the meantime, the delighted English-language media, at last faced with a French-speaking Canadian they could love, dubbed him “Canada’s JFK.” By the time he and they were done, the damage would be staggering, even two generations later.
In the 1960s, Canada still basked in the glory of the extraordinary achievements of its own Greatest Generation. She had raised the largest army in the world, per capita, to fight Hitler (1.4 million out of a population of 11 million) and had emerged from the Second World War as the world’s second-largest industrial power, devoting a vast part of this treasure to financing the Colombo Plan, “the Marshall Plan of Asia.” To this day, much of the infrastructure of Pakistan, India and South Asia was paid for by Canadians. Those Canadians had scarcely any quotas or laws against American popular culture; indeed, they generally viewed the United States with affection, some even with admiration. True, many harboured a residual anger at America’s over-two-year delay in entering the war, but it was a family squabble that could be put aside. The greatest bloom of that Canada was 1967, the summer of Expo.
The following year, Pierre Elliott Trudeau become prime minister…
Read the whole thing, where Lionel Chetwynd, in the National Post, sees another Trudeau in gestation, this one known as Barack Hussein Obama. Read more about Trudeau here.
A kangaroo court or kangaroo trial, sometimes likened to a drumhead court-martial or Drumhead trial, is a sham legal proceeding or court. Kangaroo courts are judicial proceedings that deny due process in the name of expediency. The outcome of such a trial is essentially made in advance, usually for the purpose of providing a conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or by allowing no defense at all. —wikipedia
Ezra Levant has this stunning, and revealing expose:
...
This matter has been proceeding for four years; to investigate and prosecute this case, the CHRC has not only deployed the full weight of their own government staff, but they’ve retained a series of expensive private sector lawyers as well, such as the comical Giacomo “Serenity Now!” Vigna. I’d conservatively estimate that $2-million in taxpayers’ money has been spent to date, but this being a government enterprise, the true number might be closer to $5 million. A half-dozen interveners, including the federal government, have sent lawyers, too, even if they merely sit in the hearing all day, not saying a word. And, of course, the Tribunal itself has been seized with this matter for well over a year, with about 20 days of hearings to date, in at least two cities.
Why was Tuesday’s hearing the one day that won’t be transcribed and published? Why was a trifling savings of a court stenographer—who costs, what, a third of what a lawyer bills?—chosen as the one area of economy to find? Is the Tribunal, with the unlimited resources of the government, out of cash?
...
‘Apparently Saddam had the last laugh and donated his secret stockpile to benefit Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. With a little technical advice from Beijing, Syria is now enriching the uranium, Iran is making the missiles, North Korea is testing the warheads, and the White House is hiding its head in the sand.’
People that insist that the intelligence community botched the WMD in Iraq issue in the lead-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom and that the Bush administration has botched OIF in the aftermath have got it wrong. The Intelligence community got it right before the war, but then lost the ball after the Coalition went into Iraq. The Intelligence community is now and has been actively trying to hide the fact that the WMD were found, and that they let them slip through their fingers. The Bush administration has been unable to recover from that, and that is where the Bush administration has really screwed the pooch.
Just think about what things might be like in Iraq today, if the WMD had not been spirited away right under the Iraq Survey Group’s nose, and the anti-Bush crowd could not have started spouting their “Bush Lied, ...” mantra. Of course, “shoulda, coulda, woulda” doesn’t help much…
Six decades ago, in the aftermath of the Nazi horrors, Eleanor Roosevelt, Réné Cassin and other eminent figures gathered here, on the banks of Lake Geneva, to reaffirm the principle of human dignity. They created the Commission on Human Rights. Today, we ask: What has become of their noble dream?
In this session we see the answer. Faced with compelling reports from around the world of torture, persecution, and violence against women, what has the Council pronounced, and what has it decided?
Nothing. Its response has been silence. Its response has been indifference. Its response has been criminal.
One might say, in Harry Truman’s words, that this has become a Do-Nothing, Good-for-Nothing Council.
But that would be inaccurate. This Council has, after all, done something.
It has enacted one resolution after another condemning one single state: Israel. In eight pronouncements—and there will be three more this session—Hamas and Hezbollah have been granted impunity. The entire rest of the world—millions upon millions of victims, in 191 countries—continue to go ignored.
So yes, this Council is doing something. And the Middle East dictators who orchestrate this campaign will tell you it is a very good thing. That they seek to protect human rights, Palestinian rights.
So too, the racist murderers and rapists of Darfur women tell us they care about the rights of Palestinian women; the occupiers of Tibet care about the occupied; and the butchers of Muslims in Chechnya care about Muslims.
But do these self-proclaimed defenders truly care about Palestinian rights?
Let us consider the past few months. More than 130 Palestinians were killed by Palestinian forces. This is three times the combined total that were the pretext for calling special sessions in July and November. Yet the champions of Palestinian rights—Ahmadinejad, Assad, Khaddafi, John Dugard—they say nothing. Little 3-year-old boy Salam Balousha and his two brothers were murdered in their car by Prime Minister Haniyeh’s troops. Why has this Council chosen silence?
Because Israel could not be blamed. Because, in truth, the dictators who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, or about any human rights.
They seek to demonize Israeli democracy, to delegitimize the Jewish state, to scapegoat the Jewish people. They also seek something else: to distort and pervert the very language and idea of human rights.
You ask: What has become of the founders’ dream? With terrible lies, it is being turned into a nightmare.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Response:
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PRESIDENT LUIS ALFONSO DE ALBA:
For the first time in this session I will not express thanks for that statement. I shall point out to the distinguished representative of the organization that just spoke, the distinguished representative of United Nations Watch, if you’d kindly listen to me. I am sorry that I’m not in a position to thank you for your statement. I should mention that I will not tolerate any similar statements in the Council. The way in which members of this Council were referred to, and indeed the way in which the council itself was referred to, all of this is inadmissible. In the memory of the persons that you referred to, founders of the Human Rights Commission, and for the good of human rights, I would urge you in any future statements to observe some minimum proper conduct and language. Otherwise, any statement you make in similar tones to those used today will be taken out of the records.
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt; yet, for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points. Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by the fanatics. Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up, because, like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians and many others, have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us, watching it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a good NDP-er, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.
He responded by asking her how she was doing in school.
Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?”
She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA . She is so popular on campus, college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”
Her wise father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair! I have worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the Conservative Party”.
“North Central” is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw “Fargo” you probably didn’t think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
Star of Military Valour Sergeant Patrick Tower, S.M.V., C.D.
Edmonton, Alberta, and Victoria, British Columbia
Sergeant Tower is recognized for valiant actions taken on August 3, 2006, in the Pashmul region of Afghanistan. Following an enemy strike against an outlying friendly position that resulted in numerous casualties, Sergeant Tower assembled the platoon medic and a third soldier and led them across 150 metres of open terrain, under heavy enemy fire, to render assistance. On learning that the acting platoon commander had perished, Sergeant Tower assumed command and led the successful extraction of the force under continuous small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Sergeant Tower’s courage and selfless devotion to duty contributed directly to the survival of the remaining platoon members.
Medal of Military Valour Sergeant Michael Thomas Victor Denine, M.M.V., C.D.
Edmonton, Alberta
Sergeant Denine deployed with 8 Platoon, C Company, 1 PPCLI during Operation ARCHER in Afghanistan. On May 17, 2006, while sustaining concentrated rocket-propelled grenade, machine gun and small arms fire, the main cannon and the machine gun on his light armoured vehicle malfunctioned. Under intense enemy fire, he recognized the immediate need to suppress the enemy fire and exited the air sentry hatch to man the pintle-mounted machine gun. Completely exposed to enemy fire, he laid down a high volume of suppressive fire, forcing the enemy to withdraw. Sergeant Denine’s valiant action ensured mission success and likely saved the lives of his crew.
Medal of Military Valour Master Corporal Collin Ryan Fitzgerald, M.M.V.
Shilo, Manitoba, and Morrisburg, Ontario
Master Corporal Fitzgerald deployed with 5 Platoon, B Company, 1 PPCLI Battle Group in Afghanistan. He is recognized for outstanding selfless and valiant actions carried out on May 24, 2006, during an ongoing enemy ambush involving intense, accurate enemy fire. Master Corporal Fitzgerald repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire by entering and re-entering a burning platoon vehicle and successfully driving it off the roadway, permitting the remaining vehicles trapped in the enemy zone to break free. Master Corporal Fitzgerald’s courageous and completely selfless actions were instrumental to his platoon’s successful egress and undoubtedly contributed to saving the lives of his fellow platoon members.
Medal of Military Valour Private Jason Lamont, M.M.V.
Edmonton, Alberta, and Greenwood, Nova Scotia
Private Lamont deployed with the Health Support Services Company, 1 PPCLI Battle Group during Operation ARCHER. On July 13, 2006, an element of the reconnaissance platoon came under heavy enemy fire from a compound located in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, and was isolated from the rest of the platoon. During the firefight, another soldier was shot while attempting to withdraw back to the firing line and was unable to continue. Without regard for his personal safety, Private Lamont, under concentrated enemy fire and with no organized suppression by friendly forces, sprinted through open terrain to administer first aid. Private Lamont’s actions demonstrated tremendous courage, selflessness and devotion to duty.
On September 4, 2006, shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time, Steve Irwin was killed in a marine accident while filming an underwater documentary in the Batt Reef off the Low Isles near Port Douglas, north of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is believed that a stingray barb penetrated his heart, causing a fatal wound, though this has yet to be confirmed by Australian officials. This is being reported all over the MSM - BBC, CNN, ABC and so on, so it’s very likely not a hoax. His wife, Terri has been reported to be in the mountains in Africa, or some such place, and not yet aware of this. That might explain why Aussie officials aren’t confirming the reports yet (until his next-of-kin is notified, that is).
My son, Lucas, just got a Sony PSP as his graduation present. This post is for him. Sometime soon, I’ll see about making a PSP/PDA friendly version of cerdipity. In the meantime PSP friendly links: Instapundit and Google.
He thinks that Israel deliberately bombed a UN outpost. Whether he thinks that Israel intended to deliberately kill 4 UN Peacekeepers when they bombed the outpost, he hasn’t said yet.
“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces,” Annan said in an unusually strong statement. “The co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post … occurred despite personal assurances given to me by (Israeli) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire.”
Now, I don’t have a crystal ball. But the way things are evolving right now, it seems that Israel is likely to ignore any calls for a ceasefire until such point that they feel that the Party of God in Lebanon are diminished (“degraded” in Israeli military-speak) to a point where they aren’t the serious threat that they have been.
Then they are likely to stand there tapping their collective left feet and waiting with their hand out for the Party of God, or Syria, or Iran, or whomever to hand back their soldiers, or their remains. Like my mother used to do when I took too many cookies.
Although Israel is the center of world attention today, she is only one of many targets for militant Islam. A quick trip around the world to inventory a trail of strife and death shows that Israel is only a face in the targeted-crowd.
Four Canadian soldiers were killed this past weekend in Afghanistan. This is the largest single loss of Canadian troops due to combat since the Korean War.
In World War One (“The Great War”, or “The War To End All Wars”) Canadian troops fought, and won, the bloody battle of Vimy Ridge, widely seen by historians inside Canada and around the world as a defining moment for a young country; the emergence of Canada as nation to be reckoned with in the wider world of international states affairs, after her birth in 1867, a mere 50 years earlier.
By the time of World War Two, Canada was one of the Big Five allies that prosecuted that war to its conclusion – US, USSR, UK, Canada, and Australia. Our Army, Air Force, and Navy were each among the top in the world in size and capability. There were five beaches at Normandy on D-Day – Utah and Omaha for the US forces, Gold and Sword for the British Forces, and Juno Beach for the Canadian Forces.
This practice of standing up and being counted, and sticking up for the little guy, continued as a national policy (and a source of national pride) until the Pearson government took over in the mid-60’s. That’s right, that’s the government of the same genius that won the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts in creating the United Nations after World War Two. And we all know how well thataugustbody has turnedout, don’t we? That was the beginning of the erosion, and the undoing of a hundred years effort and sacrifice by Canadians around the world.
By 2003, Canada’s standing had been eroded to practical insignificance on the world stage.
When Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, The US Forces, the British Forces, and the Australian Forces were there – just as they were in both world wars, Korea, and Afghanistan. But this time, Canadian Forces were not. In fact, for a short time, Canadian Forces members were being ordered to NOT wear their uniforms when not on base! Orders that originated with their civilian political masters. How low had we sunk as a nation?
Afghanistan is Canada’s 21st century version of Vimy Ridge. Those men that have died there since 2001 are not just dying in the cause of freedom from oppression, tyranny, and terrorism. They are also dying while actively reshaping our nation, and pulling Canada back from the brink of total irrelevance.
So we owe these troops, and their families, double thanks. You are making us proud to be Canadian, proud to stand tall under the Canadian flag. Thank you for your sacrifice and hard work for people all over the world, and thank you for your sacrifice and hard work for Canada and Canadians.
To keep up to date on the activities of our Canadian Heroes, go here, and bookmark the site.
But…but…but…but… I can hear you sputter! Teh? WTF? Why, CERDIP, are you writing about those puppies?
Well, actually, I’m not. It’s just that political blogger Warren Kinsella says that those magic words drive up blog traffic. I want to test the theory. Anyone who knows me that I don’t run this blog for the purpose of generating traffic. But still, it’s an interesting proposition, so let us see if it works. I have a snapshot of my traffic for the past week, so let’s see if PAMELA ANDERSON’S BREASTS change anything, and if so, by how much.
And just because the subject matter is a visual one (perhaps a tactile subject for a select few), then I should include this:
Before:
After:
Seems to me that the boob job was really unneeded, and lookit that facial plastic surgery! Yuck!
Remember those four guys that belonged to that never-before-heard-of group called “Christian Peacemaker Teams” (CPT) that disappeared in Iraq late last year? They were allegedly kidnapped by another little-known group calling itself the “Swords of Righteousness Brigade”. They are free men again.
After several deadlines came and when, nothing more was heard over the Christmas holidays, until a video came out of the four in apparent captivity in January.
In March, another video was released in which one of the four, Tom Fox, was missing. His body turned up a few days later, riddled with bullets. Unlike the other three in the group, in addition to being associated with CPT, Tom Fox was a Quaker. He was also the only American in the group. The other three are two Canadians and a Briton.
Now to my point: this whole thing stinks. I had my doubts at the beginning that this was a straightforward kidnapping story, and I still do. In fact, it was my opinion that they hadn’t been kidnapped at all. Then Tom Fox was murdered, which was enough to persuade me that the event was not a fake or staged kidnapping with one or more CPT members in collusion with the kidnappers.
However, this “release” or “rescue”, however you want to characterize it (and I do agree that the difference between the two terms matters a great deal —if there had been a bonafide kidnapping), re-invigorates my doubts.
1) Why was the RCMP involved? What was the Canadian connection (other than the nationalities of two of the CPT members). We have never dispatched the RCMP on other foreign terrorism kidnappings of Canadian citizens, so why this one?
2) Why did the rescue team find no one at the house other than the CPT members? It might be that the kidnappers observed a form of personal security that involved their not hanging around with their victims. However, if there had been no kidnapping at all, that would also fit the scene that the rescuers found in the house. Yes, they can tie each other’s hands behind their backs. Once the rescuers cut the ropes, the evidence is gone (of the kind of knots made, and whether they were made by someone that could see what he was doing).
3) The CPT behaviour – not even thanking their rescuers – and earlier warning that the team members *shouldn’t be rescued”—can also be explained by this event being a big hoax with a tragic twist.
4) Who killed Tom Fox? Is the answer to this related to item #1 – the RCMP’s involvement?
I may be all wet here, and totally wrong. But something smells awfully fishy here…
The Associated Press reported that a wiretapped conversation between Gretzky and Tocchet, in which they allegedly discussed how Jones could avoid being named a participant in the ring, happened last Monday, after Jones allegedly won money on the Super Bowl.
That could support the theory that Gretzky had no prior knowledge of the ring.
... and Jones is actually not under indictment, or charged in any way. She has been tagged as a witness for a Grand Jury, and that is all.
Someone needs to find the “source” that was claiming that Gretzky was wiretapped weeks before the illegal gambling ring was rolled up, and take said “source” out behind the woodshed to introduce him to the business end of a Victoriaville 7L hockey stick…
Andy Donato—cartoonist for the Toronto Sun newspaper—does a masterful job of setting the “Cartoon War” in perspective.
I must remember to check to see if the Sun has printed the 15 cartoons in question.
That’s right – I wrote 15 and not 12. There were the original 12 that were first published in Denmark, and elsewhere in the world, including Egypt, way back in October of last year. However, they did not arouse the appropriate response, so some Imams took it upon themselves to add three much more inflammatory (and fake—never printed in any media) pictures to the mix, in order to generate sufficient outrage. Oh, you didn’t know that? Why not, one wonders…
Other Blogs that talk about the “Cartoon War” are here, here, here, here, and here.
