It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, February 03, 2006
Paul Martin in Denial
and prodding to say he and his team screwed up and lost the election he just couldn't admit it. Martin surprised by his own undoing
Poor Paul spent years in a backroom battle with his hand picked back room boys only to become another Lame Duck PM. Despite all his statements to the contrary he was a lame duck. Martin makes no apologies for Liberal decline, boasts of economic legacy Undone by the backroom politics of the Liberal Party.
He is in good company with these folks other lame duck Prime Ministers undone by backroom party politics.
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Canada
Liberals
Paul Martin
Canadian Election
Canadian Prime Minister
Liberal Leadership
politics
Hockey Night in Kandahar
During yesterdays press briefing on Team Canada, the 2200 Canadian troops, two RCMP and on member each of CIDA and Foreign affairs going over to Kandahar to secure the province and begin infrastructure construction, Brig. General Fraser refered to his mission as equivalent to a hockey game.
He claimed he had an excellent forward line and a defensive line, the team was well equipped, the goal tendening was number one and his bench was deep.Wow guess they are going to plant a loonie somewhere in Kandahar like Team Canada did at the Winter Olympics.
So we are going to play hockey in Kandahar. No not really but it was so Canadian, so iconic. We can all now feel good about cheering for Team Canada against Team Taliban. Team Canada in Peril Butwhen our Canadian troops get injured or killed its going to be alot more serious than the Winter Olympics which coincide with Team Canada's mission to Kandahar.Team Canada waiting on injury reports
Brig. Gen. David Fraser, future multinational commander, speaks during a press conference Thursday in Ottawa.
"We do not take a back seat to any other nation in the world. Our soldiers are first-notch, first-class and ready for this mission," Fraser said.Last year, Canada's military was primed to battle "detestable murderers and scumbags," in the words of Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff.Now in the wake of several serious attacks on Canadians and calls for a parliamentary debate on the country's role in Afghanistan, the military has toned down its tough talk."This mission is about Canadians helping Afghans," Fraser said yesterday as he repeatedly stressed the mission is "not just about combat operations."We are prepared to kill if we have to," he said. "But that is not my mandate, to just go out and just kill. My mandate is go out and help the Afghans address the challenges that face them," he said.And conspicuously absent was any mention of Canada's special forces, who have suffered casualties in operations in Afghanistan.Instead, the focus yesterday was on the "Team Canada" approach to rebuilding the country.
When asked about whether this mission would take the fight to the enemy, that is the insurgents and Taliban in the outlying areas surrounding Kandahar, the General said that his team would play hard offence and they have a strong defence. I tell ya that man knows how to skate around a press conference.
When ever a press type would ask if the General was worried he would face Iraq like conditions in Afghanistan Fraser would say, "we have nothing do with Iraq I am going to Afghanistan."
Whew that's good to know, had us worried there. The point that the General seemed to continually miss was that the reporters weren't saying we were going to Iraq they were refering to the door to door, combat operations that American forces have faced in towns like Faluja and if Canadian troops would face the same kind of fight in Kandahar. But Fraser avoided that crucial issue with all the gusto and grumpiness of Don Cherry.
Afghan officials have expressed fears that foreign fighters are emulating the rebellion in Iraq with a wave of suicide attacks, including an assault this week when a bomber, dressed in women's clothes, killed five Afghans at an army checkpoint. "There is a big group coming from Iraq," said Ghulam Dusthaqir Azad, governor of the southwestern province of Nimroz. "They're linked to Al Qaeda and fought against U.S. forces in Iraq. They have been ordered to come here. Many are suicide attackers."Despite the dangers, Fraser said that soldiers are "pumped" about the upcoming mission.And he praised the equipment the troops will be taking with them, including LAV III armoured vehicles, hi-tech aerial drones to provide a bird's-eye view and new 155-mm howitzers that can blast a precision-guided shell 40 kilometres with an accuracy of 10 metres.
Blogger Peaktalk raises some interesting questions about the Canadian and Dutch forces going to Kandahar, both countries being left leaning social democracies share a view that their soliders are Peacekeepers says Peaktalk
Peacekeeping missions by their very nature include a ‘war-component’ as you will have to pacify some elements that have fail to recognize the terms of the truce that a peacekeeping force is supposed to maintain. In some nations, Canada being a great example, most people don’t even know that their sons and daughters in Afghanistan are actually engaged in fighting the Taliban. “We’re a peaceful nation and we’re making peace” is an often heard belief and it is hard to argue with it as no one has ever made it clear to the average Canadian what their mission was all about. So, Canadians and Dutch alike are often left with the artificial peacekeeping construct, used to buy political support, to ignore realities on the ground, and to wishfully think that there are no real life threatening hazards in today’s world.
His link is out of date, it goes back to a 2004 article. His point is well made, we are not on a peace keeping mission, but a mission to secure a hostile area and then peace will ensue.A dangerous mission for Canada's troops
General Fraser yesterday cleared up our mission yesterday. Candians now know full well the mission we are sending Frasers Team Canada to Kandahar to do. Uh sort of. We are going to build infrastructure in Kandahar, public buildings, schools, roads, train their army and police, establish the area as a secure State.
After we subdue the nasty warlords and Taliban in the hills with our brand new state of the art Howitzer, we will build a hockey rink and play Canada's national game in the newly established state of Kandahar. We are making Kandahar safe for Tim Hortons to open a franchise.
And while the General assured us Team Canada is playing with best equipment possible, apparently that is not so.
Some of their equipment dates back to when Edward "Eddie" Shore, "The Edmonton Express" played for the Boston Bruins, the same year the 'lauging stock' of the NHL the Chicago Black Hawks beat Toronto for their second Stanely cup ever., 1937-1938.
Canadians armed with WWII pistols
History and Development
of the M1911/M1911Al Pistol
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Canadian Troops
Afghanistan
Kandahar
NATO
Tim Hortons
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Another Catholic Child Molester
The encyclical on celibacy is modern, while the practice actually originated in the Gnostic heresies of the dark ages. Through out history the Catholic church allowed for married priests, even the pope was married, of course he was a Borgia.
Celibacy coincides with the enclyclical that the Pope is infallible. The practice in of celibacy and its resulting in abuse has certainly turned out to prove that wrong.
Ex-Vatican official wanted on Ontario sex charges
Globe and Mail -10 hours ago
By GREG MCARTHUR. Ontario Provincial Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a retired Vatican official, a Canadian, who was close with Pope John Paul II and is now wanted on sex abuse charges. Monsignor ...
OPP charges Vatican official with sexual assaultCTV.ca
Retired Vatican official accused of molesting altar boys in ...CBC Saskatchewan CBC Ottawa -580 CFRA Radio -Ottawa Citizen -CTV.ca -all 7 related »
While celibacy is un-natural, it is the power of the priesthood that allows them to abuse those who are in their care. The abuse of children, is the power over by the priest taking advantage of his position of 'authority'. And clearly this priest was imbued with the authority of the Vatican.
Also see: Christianity Is Child Abuse
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Torys Slime Graham
He gets his link from a spurious posting by Proud To Be Canadian (I am not proud this creep is Canadian) who uses inuendo in a clever way and leaves a link to google stories on Graham.
Both of them use out of date information and doubtful allegations that Bill Graham now the Liberal Leader, had a sexual relationship with a fifteen year old boy back in the eighties. This is a slimy attempt to out Graham who has never come out as a gay man in public.
So I checked out the links provided by PTBC and OC. The original allegation was posted on Fab. But it no longer exists.
Lifesite the Anti-Abortion Anti-Gay site ran this story based on the spurious report in Fab and Frontpage magazine.
OTTAWA, February 19, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Canada's newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister, Bill Graham, is a darling of the homosexual activist community having constantly supported pro-homosexuality initiatives including homosexual marriage. However, last year a Toronto-based homosexual magazine called Fab published an interview with Lawrence Metherel, a former male prostitute, who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with the Graham, dating back to 1980 when Metherel was 15.
This is the old right wing ploy where a story is posted by one right wing site, and then repeated as authoritative by another right wing site. The Fraser Institute does this by quoting the Cato Institute, both are right wing think tanks.
In this case Frontpage magazine which Lifesite quotes from is run by Right Whingnut David Horowitz. His Canadian editor published his attack on Graham based on an article in the satirical magazine Frank. That article is no longer on line because Frank died. And with Frank it was a rumour that had originated, once again with the defunct Fab.
The only source for this story that still exists online is from the Eye magazine in Toronto which said this at the time and is still right on.
You see, fab (the magazine for homosexuals who hate themselves) published an interview with an ex-boyfriend of Graham's last year, featuring the spurned lover's lurid accusations against the respected MP. In my opinion, this was a disgusting piece of yellow journalism. I remember thinking -- after using the article to drain the grease off my breakfast bacon -- that fab had finally sunk as low as any supermarket tabloid. And Frank, true to sleazy form, reprinted fab's bilge after Graham's appointment.
Atypically, Frank (which rarely exhibits remorse) made a pathetic attempt to justify its release of the tawdry details: "Now that he's a federal cabinet minister and a security risk, shouldn't the rest of the country get the story?" The Globe and Mail echoed Frank's sentiments. After Graham (the "flamboyant" new minister) recently deflected questions about the "rumours" concerning his private life as irrelevant, the Globe editorialized, "It is relevant, of course, if it makes him politically vulnerable."
So two of the supposed original sources for this story are no longer on line. And all these stories occurred in 2002! Four years ago. And let us remember this that the 'Flamboyant" Bill Graham has never admitted to being gay. Regardless of the speculation and clever innuendo by the press about his sexuality. Despite the fact he is married and a grandfather.This doesn't stop the renewal of this attack on Grahams character by these blogging gay bashers of the right.So while the Blogging Tories and the other rightwhingnuts whine about how gays flaunt their sexuality, with gay pride parades, and demands for their human rights, it is for this very reason they do. Silence is death as the AIDS acitivists say. The closet is not safe.
For that very reason being in the closet has been a security risk, while coming out opens one up to gay bashing. Heck being "flamboyant" opens one up to gay bashing.
Think I am being to harsh calling the creep Ottawa Core a gay basher.
Here is how Ottawa Core ends his article: Kill all the lawyers. Oh, did I mention Bill Graham is a lawyer and law professor? Can you see him eyeing your child?
This is hate speech pure and simple. And it is an open threat of violence against a public figure. And we have laws about this in Canada.
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gay bashing
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Bill Graham
Blogging Tories
Good Riddance Not Goodbye
Damn shame too because they really are beneath contempt.
Of course I am speaking of Analouge (yes I know I mis-spelled it) whose foul mouthed contempt for all other bloggers is only matched by his anonmyass comments when he trolls.
The other is Peter Rempel whose site you have to see. I think his picture of the new PM says it all. Though don't expect it to be used by the Conservatives as a promo soon. It can be taken two ways. One is the juvenile nyah nyah of Rempelstiltskin or as a warning of what is too come from the Harper regime. Time will tell.
Well lets see who also abandons ship now that Gomery is done, Paul Martin has held his last photo op press conference.
The one Liberal blogger who left the building came right back in, the revolving door barely completed a turn. Warren Kinsella broke his promise to his wife. She ranks behind Jean Chretien in his books. Ouch.
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blogs
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Blasphemy is in the Eye of the Beholder
Even the Blogging Tories, Post this cartoon and frighten a terrorist and the Progressive Bloggers are commenting about the Muslim outcry and censorship of what they are calling blasphemous representations of their prophet.
Islam bans any representation of G*D or his prophets. Which is why Islam developed a wonderful culture of architecture and abstract geometric art forms.
So with that in mind ANY representation, whether positive or negative of Mohammed, may his name be blessed, and A***h the merciful ,is BLASPHEMY.
It seems that fear of the Muslim masses has caused the usually staid and established European media to cringe at having masses of outraged muslims torch their buildings.
Muslims, that peaceful religion, like to hold mass rallies and do the "villagers meet Frankenstein" thing. Sorta like brownshirts during the 1930's. This is what religious ideology does, it inflames the souls of their followers, who believe that there is no higher power than their G*D.
Christian and Muslim alike suffer this particular evangelism, sometimes called fundamentalism. It means that man made laws, the social contract of society is less important than the BOOK.
Which is why this text is considered Blasphemy in Islam and great literature in the West.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
In this recent case of the controversial cartoon Muslims are being forgiven for their outrage, and outrageous threats, cause they are minority religion.
They are a patriarchical belief system based on the Old Testament, which has been the basis of the modern state since Constantine. They are just a later adaption of Judeo-Christian monotheism.
Jews are a minority religion as well, one that has faced genocidal persecution for centuries by Christians and Christian States. As an outcast minority in 19th and 20th Century Europe, not unlike the Muslims of today but unlike them they faced annihilation at the hands of the Nazi's which reminds us of the damage ideology gone rampant can cause. Today they demand the State defend them against anti-semitism by using anti-hate laws. Something that Muslims should consider if they are so outraged.
Where Islam is the State this is how they treat religious minorities:
Christian faces death for 'blasphemy' Granted unprecedented final hearing before Pakistan Supreme Court
And in newly liberated Afghanistan, home of Americas newest Democracy, liberated by the U.S. army. Where Canadian troops hunt down the Taliban, and look for Osama bin Laden. Afghanistan where the Bush adminstration claimed they were going to free the Women of Afghanistan. Well it's still a muslim country.
AFGHANISTAN: Editor goes on trial for blasphemy |
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You see Christians sue, or write letters to the editor, or blog their outrage. But that is because they are the established religion of North America, Latin America and Europe. They are the state religion.
'Jesus Juice' gets
corked for good
Couple won't market wine with image some call blasphemous
Posted: December 22, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
A wine called "Jesus Juice" that includes a label with the image of a Michael Jackson look-alike in a Christ-like position on a cross will not be marketed, now that the California media power couple behind the effort has decided to abandon the idea.
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, "Jesus Juice" merlot was the pet project of actress Dawn Westlake and veteran CBS Evening News producer Bruce Rheins, who covered the Michael Jackson child molestation case.
Rheins and Westlake registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the name "Jesus Juice" in January of 2004, only two months after Jackson was arrested and several days after news sources reported that Jackson referred to the wine that he purportedly gave to minors as "Jesus Juice."
I find myself agreeing with Steve Janke at Angry in the Great White North when he says;
As for peace-loving Muslims who are offended, well, too bad. Being offended is the price of freedom. Be offended, but don't be frightened or terrorized. Get used to being offended. I feel offended at least three times a week by things I read and by the opinions I hear voiced. I write about it, I defend my point of view, I try to show where others are mistaken or duplicitous, but I never ask that people be silenced.
Blasphemy is liberation. It comes in many forms, mainly those challenging accepted ideas. The Devil's Dictionary It allows us to challenge the idiotic belief systems of authority and the establishment, whether the domain of the ivory tower or the church or the state.
Blasphemy? No, it is not blasphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is above blasphemy; if He is as little as that, He is beneath it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography
Now this is a site I like Positive Blasphemy
Also see:
The Need for Arab Anarchism
No Suitcases At Mecca
Antinominalist Anarchism
Gnostic Heresy Cries Vatican |
Blasphemy
Gnostic Heresy in Islam
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Censorship
blasphemy
cartoon
Islam
Mohammed
Danish
Europe
George Walker Liar
The pre-media release of the U.S. Presidents State of the Union Speech the other night focused on oil man George Bush announcing that 'America must overcome it's oil addiction', in particular oil from the Middle East.
It was a lie.
It made all the headlines pre and post STOU.Bush Acknowledges U.S. Reliance on Oil
It was a lie.
It made the blogs. It was a major focus of discussion.
It was a lie.
Like his father before him it was George W. Bush's 'read my lips' line of the night.
It was a lie.
Bush aides clarify statements about oil
Mideast Still a Player in Oil MarketsOn Wednesday, Hubbard and Bodman acknowledged that Persian Gulf oil may, in fact, not be replaced at all, even if overall oil imports were to drop because of the increased availability of alternative motor fuels.
Bodman said the president's reference to a 75 percent replacement of Persian Gulf oil was "purely an example" of the kinds of reductions in overall imports that might be possible if U.S. demand for oil were reduced.
"It was not meant to suggest anything related to the politics of the situation. ... It was merely meant to give an example," Bodman added.
Hubbard, when pressed further, abandoned the suggestion that Middle East oil would be "replaced" as the president said. Instead, he said the oil savings would be "equivalent" to three-fourths of the projected imports from the Persian Gulf.
Bush running out of energy
Bush's focus on reducing the percentage of oil imported from the Middle East, which currently accounts for only about 17% of all US oil imports, even drew scorn from neo-conservative allies of the president. They have argued that the impact on global prices created by Washington's demand for oil - regardless of its origin - is what empowers and enriches Middle Eastern exporters, such as Saudi Arabia, that in their view contribute directly or indirectly to radical Islamist movements that threaten the US and Israel.
"It doesn't matter if we don't buy oil from the Middle East," Gal Luft, a co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, told the New York Times. If the US doesn't buy oil from the region, "someone else will, supporting the same regimes".
One commentator, the Washington Post's economics columnist, Steven Pearlstein, took a particularly cynical view of Bush's proposals. "Does anyone really believe that a president and vice president who became wealthy from their association with the oil and gas industry, who never failed to tout the industry line and who presided over the biggest transfer of wealth from consumers to industry in the history of mankind - that these same leaders will move us beyond a 'petroleum-based economy' to one based on 'wood chips, stalks or switch grass'?" he wrote, referring to Bush's description of the sources of cellulosic ethanol.
On the eve of Bush's address, the world's largest energy company, ExxonMobil, announced that it had set a record last year for profits among US companies - $36 billion - apparently as a result of skyrocketing oil and gas prices, as well as generous tax breaks and other subsidies promoted by Bush and the Republican-led Congress.
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SOTU
America
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State of the Union
Yo Ho Ho
While George Bush told America "not to worry" that the victory in Iraq was all but assured and the War on Terror was progressing he missed this little fact.
That the destabilization of the region has now, for the first time, made Iraq is a hotbed of piracy.
Iraq stood out "as a new world piracy hotspot," with 10 attacks in 2005 after none the year before.
"Opportunists whose main motivation is robbery and financial gain, and who use extreme violence towards crews in most cases perpetrate these attacks," the IMB report said.
Most of Iraq's attacks were on vessels anchored near the Basrah oil terminal and Umm Qasr off the country's southeastern coast, it said.
tags
Iraq
Bush
pirates
piracy
Gay Liberal Leader
Like the Chretien Adscam which dominated his short lived reign as PM, now Paul has made the Liberal party news again. It's overshadowing the Harper victory with masses of media speculation on who will be running for the Liberal leadership. Clever.
The one successful tactic that worked for the Liberals in the whole election comes the night they lose.
Lots of speculation has dominated the political blogs, left, liberal and right. And frankly I could really care less.
But Adam Rawdwaski makes an interesting point in his National Pest column;
Last week, I got into an online debate with a fellow blogger about why urbanites are so obsessed with the Conservatives' position on gay marriage.
There's another reason for Harper to hurry up with this. To this point, the Liberals haven't been able to fully exploit gay marriage as a wedge issue because Paul Martin was himself unwilling to make a proper case for it. The next Liberal leader probably won't be so squeamish. If the Conservatives wait even until later in this parliament to hold the vote, they'll be handing him a ready-made cause to wrap himself around.
Which is why it is likely this guy will run for the Liberal leadership.
Brison getting calls to lead - Calgary Sun - 30 Jan 2006
Scott Brison mulls Liberal leadership run - Toronto Star - 29 Jan 2006
Brison says he's getting calls about running for Liberal ... - Canada.com - 29 Jan 2006
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Scott Brison
Seperated at Birth
"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos," Bush said to a joint session of Congress (Bush speech text, 1/31). After the U.N. General Assembly 59th Session in March 2005 approved a nonbinding statement urging governments to ban all forms of human cloning, including cloning for embryonic stem cell research, Bush said, "I look forward to working with members of Congress to enact legislation to ban all human cloning in the United States" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/9/05). Congress is considering at least six bills relating to embryonic stem cell research and human cloning (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/25/05).
President panders to anti-manimal lobby! Dr Moreau flees country in rage!
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