9/12: Koran burning postponed but echoes continue

I suppose we should be thankful that the Koran burning planned for yesterday didn't happen ... yet.    Oddly, the mere announcement that the idiot pastor was just thinking about it at all in the first place got precisely the opposite reaction he hoped for -- the vast majority of Americans, including Jews and Christians, said, "No, not in our country."

But attacks against Christians who wanted no part of this hate are themselves the victims of hatred this weekend, in Indonesia for example.   An argument can be made that Terry Jones should face prosecution for inciting politically motivated violence outside the United States.   American courts don't take that lightly -- they were pretty tough on those who aided and abetted apartheid in the late 1980s.

Maybe it would have been just better if we had ignored the guy all together.   This was entirely about getting attention just like Fred Phelps' anti-gay hate group in Topeka, Kansas.   If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it ... well, since it hits the ground and the ground vibrates it does makes the sound, but if no one hears the sound then it's out of sight and mind.

We aren't born hating, we acquire it.   If the haters have no audience then they will only speak to themselves.

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Memo to Koran-burning "pastor"

Hey, "Pastor" Terry Jones.   Wanna burn some Korans, eh?

Then you'd also better burn a book that describes in pretty graphic detail brutal rapes, as well as erotic poetry to make some romance writers squirm.  A book where God makes a bet with Satan.   A book where a guy whacks a giant, marries the daughter of the high priest, then commits adultery with not just one but seven women all in the royal court.  A book where an entire generation of first-born were slaughtered with God's permission yet to this day we must not question why they were murdered even though some if not most of their parents had nothing to do or wanted nothing to do with their king's rule.   Finally, even though the eventual hero of the saga tells his posse to abandon their wives and children, most don't -- in fact his immediate successor raises his mother-in-law from death.

The Holy Bible.  PASTOR.   BURN THAT, TOO!!!!   You fucking hypocrite.

Oh and for what it's worth ... Shana Tov and Eid Mubarak.   If you don't know what they mean, run it on a search engine.   You certainly know how to post on YouTube.

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BREAKING: Tom Clark quits CTV

After four decades with Canada's largest private network, Clark suddenly quit today, according to The Hollywood Reporter.   The network confirmed this in a "terse" statement.   Apparently Clark was miffed that he was passed over the anchor job he had been groomed for years, for former Kitchener anchor Lisa LaFlamme.

Just yesterday, THR (the main rival to Variety) and with an assist from the Canadian Press noted that Harper had a secret meeting with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes back in March 2009 to discuss -- well, we don't know.  But the meeting did take place.  Also there -- Mr. Keneycke.

Hmm ... Peter Mansbridge has been the anchor at Mother for 22 years.   Could the CBC be using the chance to get rid of him and bring in someone with "gravitas" to bring its ratings back up?   Or maybe he's going to go to Fox News North.

As for the meeting ... could Fox be asking for "must carry" carriage n Canada for its US network the same as for CNN-US?   Just as a fallback, in case SunTV fails in its bid?   (Remember that Fox News originally applied for extended basic availability back around 2003 in a joint application with Global -- it got turned down; Global then withdrew and Fox reapplied on its own to be a digital channel which got clearance without a fuss.)

Stay tuned.

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It's Gillard, just

After more than two weeks, the stalemate in Australia is finally over with Julia Gillard getting three of the five indies plus the one Green to her side.   Her challenger, Tony Abbott, got only the other two "crossbenchers."

So Gillard wins, but just barely, 76-74.   As usual it was money that did it -- she promised a roughly AUD 10 billion (CAD 9.5 billion) increase in transfer payments for health, education and the all-encompassing "infrastructure."   (Sound familiar, fellow Canadians?)   Mind you, Oz can afford to do it -- with a mass sale of assets during the 1990s the country has a debt load per capita about less than a quarter of ours, less than a tenth of the States.  But while I am glad she won, I don't like the idea of bribes no matter how constituted.

With such a narrow margin, and with the usual attrition that occurs during any parliamentary term (death, illness, resignation -- any of which triggers a by-election), I give Ms Gillard 18 months before she calls another poll (Parliaments Down Under are usually three years) or she herself is ousted in a party coup.

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Happy Labour Day

Off until Tuesday.   To all my readers in Canada and the US, Happy Labour Day ... for many of us this is the start of our "real" year so let's hope it's a good one.

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Isn't it time we got this coward out of Canada?

With all the talk about refugees as of late, and how many on both the right and the left are trying to make this a political issue and about shaping the kind of country we ought to be and the people we ought to admit, there is one example of a very well known terrorist who has been making a joke out of our refugee appeals process for over twenty years:   Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammed.

Even though we know for a fact he hijacked an El-Al plane in Greece, an incident that led to the death of an Israeli mechanic and got a lengthy sentence (commuted due to a prisoner swap / blackmail), he roamed between several Arab countries and eventually managed to get into Canada in 1987.   When it became obvious who he was -- it was shown that he did not disclose his affiliation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, he was ordered deported.  In 1988.   He's still here.

He has used the standard canard that he was not a terrorist but a "freedom fighter" (like the Provisional IRA) and that he was fighting his enemy, Israel, "the enemy of his people."  [his words, not mine]   He also says that if he was sent back to the last country where he apparently came from, Lebanon, he would face almost certain death in a refugee camp -- and in any case, he has been an idea citizen, his daughters have established roots here and it would be a violation of his human rights to be deprived of citizenship due to an "oversight."

Frankly, I do not consider omitting a previous criminal conviction, especially a terrorist act (even if one was pardoned for it) to be an oversight.   Further, the PFLP is a listed terrorist group by Canada, the US and the EU.   It also backed away just a few months ago from endorsing a "two state solution" and has now gone to a "one state solution" which of course would mean the end of Israel as we know it.

While we grant asylum to people who have been convicted of crimes that would never be considered crimes here (such as advocating for a free press or proselytizing) there should be a no brainer on this one:    MMIM is a menace to society.    It doesn't matter he has a family here.    We have a hard enough time hunting down terrorists and organized crime figures who were born here.    We should not be sending a message that we welcome terrorists from foreign shores.

How many "pre-removal risk assessments" do we have to do to figure out the obvious?   The last time I checked, a potential refugee is entitled to go through a Singh process once from application to final appeal once, not five or six times.  MMIM has made a mockery out of habeas corpus -- the evidence against him is overwhelming and proven.   Kick the bum out, now.

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Diesel tanker runs aground north of 60, 9 million litres may spill

What a surprise.   And keep in mind, this is a supply ship that's run aground in the Northwest Passage -- these are the very ships that keep communities in the High Arctic alive.

Just a week or so ago it was a cruise ship, and it entered our waters undetected.   How is this possible?

Imagine when terrorists figure out how to get through and southward, undetected.  Or they spill toxic materials into the Beaufort Sea, also undetected.   "Use it or lose it," eh?   Then maybe we should bite the bullet, purchase and re-flag some used Coast Guard vessels from other countries who no longer need them, and actually start defending the entrances to the Passage until we get the Canadian-built ships ready -- and make naval inspections at sea for all ships who want to enter for their seaworthiness, mandatory and at the expense of those who enter.   Just like canals charge tolls for everyone from recreational boaters to aircraft carriers.

Annual visits up North by Harper, or military exercises for the media, just isn't enough.

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Somalia -- lost opportunity

Sometimes it's not the friends you keep, but your enemies.   This week's column by public security analyst Gwynne Dyer discusses the situation in Somalia and how the US and its allies missed an opportunity to reconcile with one significant branch of Islam.   Somehow, the long warring tribes in Southern Somalia managed to get along under the rule of law and there was however briefly economic prosperity.   Perhaps even a hope of reuniting with the northern part of the country, the rather prosperous Somaliland (which operates as a de facto country but is almost totally unrecognized, not even the token recognition most countries give to Taiwan despite the "One China" policy that is generally respected.

What happened?   NATO and other countries with "interests" in the Horn of Africa got cold feet over the idea over the very concept of "Islamic courts" even if this was a rare case where they actually worked   Oh, and "The West" wanted to appease Ethiopia which sees Somalia as a strategic threat to its security and its leading role in the Northeast of Africa.

Somalia is therefore right back where it started.   The South is at war again, the African Union peacekeepers have no peace to keep (sound familiar, say Kandahar City?) and the North remains an unrecognized entity.

I don't always agree with the writer, but most of the time Dyer's right on the money, just as he was earlier this year with the real reasons the UK decided to protect a huge area of the Indian Ocean it owns for "environmental" reasons -- it was really to kiss ass with the US Air Force, which wants to keep its air base at Diego Garcia.

Nice going, Bush, Harper and the rest of the scumbags.    To favour one country over another in the name of the so-called "war on terror", you also gave a victory to the televangelists and in turn made the misery of millions even worse.

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Can't trust Clements

Until the Big Four sports in North America (baseball, basketball, football and ice hockey) as well as NASCAR ™ irrevocably adopts the World Anti-Doping Code, rather than a limited list agreed to with the so-called "players' associations", one can never truly believe any athlete who says they were "clean" when the drug policies were a joke.   Particularly with Roger Clemens and the so-called "home run king" Sammy Sosa.    It is important to remember Clemens is charged with perjury, not with being juiced up.

One's hopes that things will improve got dashed with the news that Donald Fehr will now be running the NHL Player's Assocation.   Remember he was absolutely opposed to any kind of drug testing while he was kingpin for the baseball players until forced to cave in under huge political pressure.

Sad thing number one:  If the charges are true, Clemens could get more time in jail than he would have if he had just told the truth in the first place.

Sad thing number two:   Some of the sports not sanctioned by the Olympics but which have mandatory drug testing include:   Angling, Body Building (after decades of resistance), Bridge, Checkers, Cheerleading, Darts, Dragon Boating, Go, Karate, Minigolf, Skateboarding, and Sleddogging.    What do they understand that the millionaires in the locker rooms cannot even begin to comprehend?  Oh, that YOU CAN'T CHEAT????

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Bring 'em on (the stock cars, that is)

Yes we can.   We CAN have a real NASCAR race in Canada.   Besides, we probably have as many rednecks as America does ... if not more.

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Nailbiter in Australia -- if only this happened in Canada

Talk about a nail-biter!   A week after the 2010 Aussie elections, we finally have some preliminary results.   With 83.2% of the votes counted and a magic number of 76, the challenger Tony Abbott of the Liberal / National coalition has 73, the "incumbent" (if you ignore she shoved out Kevin Rudd in a coup) Julia Gillard of Labour has 72, the Greens 1 and 4 independents    One "National" from Western Australia has already pulled out of the caucus and will sit as an independent as well so it's actually a dead tie at 72 each.

Both Gillard and Abbott are claiming they won but for different reasons.  Gillard claims she won and has the right to govern based on leading in the two party preference percentage (Australia uses a preferential instant run-off ballot for the lower house and she is presumably in the lead after votes for minor parties have been redistributed after being knocked out).   Abbott claims that on the popular vote on the first round, he was in the lead by at least 800,000 votes and therefore he has the right to be the PM.

Oh to be one of the six MPs who now hold the balance of power.   The concessions they can wring out to be king or queen-maker.

Not to mention the chaos in the Australian Senate (where voters either choose one party list, or ranks all candidates in order of preference from 1 to x even if x runs into the low hundreds) -- with the Green Party now holding the balance of power there by a wide margin.

So unlike Canada where a minority party can rule as if it was the majority and does as long as it retains the "confidence" of the house.    Oh yeah, we have first past the post.   So many winners aren't really that, just the ones who got the plurality (not the majority) of votes.

If we ever got our act straight and have real election reform in Canada, imagine how fun we'd have on election night .. or week.

Mind you, there is one huge difference between their federation and ours.   We have an entrenched bill of rights.   They don't at the federal level (although the national capital, Canberra, and the state of Victoria have in their basic laws).   Even the British, which have experimented with one for a dozen years (when they merely adopted the European Charter as domestic legislation), were thinking of limiting its application or withdrawing from the treaty all together (although at present the law allows both the courts as well as Parliament or the devolved legislatures to adopt a "declaration of incompatibility") but the coalition ruling there now says they'll leave well enough alone for the time being; and by next year the country will have a national version of PR anyway, as they do now for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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Avril Lavigne wannabe, a terrorist?

They come from where you'd least expect them.    But I would never have guessed a former contestant on the karaoke / lip-synching contest called Canadian Idol would now be a suspect in a cross-Canada terrorist plot.

Unfortunately, this is a reminder that we need to remain constantly vigilant to ensure that a 9 / 11 or a 7/7 doesn't happen on our soil.   But we all know it will sooner or later.

By the way, Dr. Khurram Sher could use some singing lessons.    (Click to  Sher's audition video here.)  He sounded like a male Florence Foster Jenkins, and by the way that was not a compliment  if you know who "Flo Fo" was.

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Cabbie stabbing: Did debate over "mosque" really have to get to this?

When the name "Michael Enright" was coming up as a top search term yesterday, you could have been mistaken as I was in thinking the reference was to the long-time broadcaster at CBC Radio One.   Instead, this Michael Enright is a coward who -- if the reports are correct -- stabbed a Muslim cab driver in NYC.   Enright has been charged with three counts, the most serious being attempt murder two with the aggravating circumstance of a hate crime, which carries up to 25 years in prison.   Even crazier is that this Enright may be the same one who was a volunteer at Intersections International, a Manhattan group that promotes religious tolerance.

Thankfully, the driver, Ahmed H. Sharif, is okay although certainly he is going to have to cope with PTSD maybe for the rest of his life.

So far, Sarah Palin, John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh have been amazing silent about this.   Strangely though Bill O'Reilly wasn't.

I realize passions are running high over the proposed Corboda Center near Ground Zero, but did it really have to get to this?   Since when did we hallow ground over a military defeat?   Oh yeah, been there done that.   Kosovo (battled over by Serbians and Albanians for as long as anyone can remember), the Plains of Abraham (now a federal park, no doubt to the angst of the Québec separatists), Anteitam (a Confederate victory on Union ground) ...

Just an observation.

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TO neighbourhood stands up for gay couple

You'd think this kind of confrontation would happen in the Deep South, or the Bible Belt in the Mid-West.   Not in Toronto.   But it's time somebody stood up and said, not here.   People certainly have a right to pray, even publicly.   But there's a fine line between persuasion and being a bully.   

Here's a link to the video.

Judge for yourself.

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Is it time to clean housse at Hamilton City Hall? Yes

Only in Hamilton could they screw something up like a stadium. It's official – the track and field events for the Toronto Pan Am Games in 2015, the “glamour” events as it were – will now be held at York University instead. And their facility just needs a bit of upgrading for cheap which will no doubt come as a relief to the federal and provincial governments worried about cost overruns that inevitably happen with multi-sports extravaganzas.    With that, we're left with soccer and cycling, and at the rate things are going soccer is gone by next week -- which means no new stadium and the local football team will be gone by the end of next year.

A couple weeks ago, under very suspicious circumstances, and not reported at all by the mainstream media, council approved without any debate a two for one public for private land swap around Hamilton Airport with -- get this -- Senator David Braley, the auto parts magnate and owner of 2 CFL teams, who is widely suspected of being the source of the brief rumour that Hamilton would get any federal funding pulled if it did not kowtow to the current Hamilton Tiger Cats ownership and go with East Mountain as the site of the new stadium instead of the West Harbour which is what council decided on regardless.

Keep in mind, this all going on while we're debating the merits of the so-called "Aerotropolis" which would put commercial development on pristine farmland.

We can't get it straight when it comes to projects that come with the promise of money.   Whether it's public transit or sports facilities or whatever else, we take too long to debate these things -- meanwhile, other cities are shovel ready and the shovels go in the ground the moment the green light is given.   Or we swap land under very suspicious circumstances even if everything is above board and legal.

City government may be government, but many cities in Ontario like Cambridge and Missisauga are run like businesses.   Here it's like a mom and pop shoppe and accounting is done as if we're still on a cash system instead of accrual (i.e. transactions are recorded when they happen, not when cash or equivalent changes hands) as it's supposed to be.


Perhaps there is an argument to be made that there should be a wholesale cleaning of house when the local elections are held October 25th.  The Mayor (Fred Eisenberger) I like.   Some of the councillors -- in fact most of them -- not so much.   But with FPTP, instead of alternative vote (ranking candidates 1, 2, 3 and so on) there isn't much hope unless enough voters wake up; and with only 39% turnout last time I don't see it happening.

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