Thursday, December 4, 2003
The bright side
It’s so easy to drown in a sea of negativity - that’s the nature of news. ASI blog puts it all into perspective, with a message of optimism and hope.
Not only older, but richer. I mean really rich. A majority in final school years today will probably be millionaires, and with today’s spending power, not just in inflated currency.
We are all really very lucky to be living so well today. :smile:
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
World Government
Well, I suppose it had to happen eventually - now the UN wants to rule the internet.
Governments spearheaded by China, Brazil, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia are trying to place the Internet under the control of the United Nations or its member governments, a move that the United States and other developed countries are determined to resist.
The fringe, mainly heard from in the US, who were worried about a one-world government, are slowly appearing to be less lunatic fringe every day.
VIA Nealenews (getting better every day)
Friday, October 24, 2003
France’s rapid descent
A disturbing article on France and its massive, segregrated immigrant population.
Indisputably, however, France has handled the resultant situation in the worst possible way. Unless it assimilates these millions successfully, its future will be grim.
Can this happen in Canada? I hope not - but Europe is becoming a powderkeg that the whole world may have to worry about - again.
VIA LGF
Thursday, October 23, 2003
North Korean atrocities
Daimnation has a disturbing entry on a pillar of the Axis of Evil: North Korea.
A new report on North Korea’s gulag says pregnant women who’ve been returned to the country after trying to escape are having their babies forcibly aborted or killed, to keep the DPRK “ethnically pure”:
Pregnant North Korean refugees repatriated after being rounded up in China have their babies forcibly aborted or killed after birth, according to a report that adds more horror to what is known of the Stalinist state’s gulags.
Don’t hear much from the UN condemning North Korea - they’re too busy condemning Israel’s defence wall.
Monday, September 29, 2003
Looks good on them
Good for the Italians - after sniffing their snooty nose at us while we blacked out, they blacked out for even longer.
It was Bollino back in August who assured Italians that their country would not suffer the kind of massive blackout North America did.
“The risk in Italy is tiny,” was one of several headlines describing Bollino’s assessment last month. Back then, Bollino boasted that Italy’s network was less obsolete than the U.S. one, and that European countries had tighter protocols on assistance and interconnections with other countries’ power supplies.
Can’t wait until more of them hook up their new a/c units as the years go by and the heat goes up.
Bad Egg
Caught this cartoon in the Cox and Forkum interview on another new blogroll entry, Eye on the Left.
The blog quality index seems to be rising of late.
Photo radar
Now that it’s clear the the Liberals will be coming into power this week, it’s time to be weary of photo radar. A new blogroll addition, Unpersons.net, has an entry on the London experience.
In this first piece, Mr. Carr highlights the growth of a new ‘Gatso Killer’ movement: A loosely-knit group of individuals who are using the Internet to plot the bombing, burning, decapitation and dismemberment of speed cameras. It is reported that the movement’s most destructive cells are operating in the south of England and in Wales.
Saturday, September 27, 2003
On Iraq and the EU
American Realpolitik dug up some interesting points to ponder, on both Iraq and the EU.
It is worth stating the obvious, so momentous is it: For the first time in almost half a century, Iraq has no executions, no political prisoners, no torture and no limits on freedom of expression.
Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Torture tales
More sick stories from the land of our friends, the Saudis.
As Alexander “Sandy” Mitchell went through his own private hell in a Saudi jail, he could heard the screams of his friend, Canadian William Sampson, in a nearby cell.
Best idea yet:
...Until they have a change of government, adopt a human rights code and show proof they are living up to it, they do not belong in the community of nations. We must cancel aid of any kind and close our embassy and consulates. We should send home Saudi government personnel stationed in Canada. We should seek a statement of condemnation from the UN.
Monday, September 8, 2003
Shake that thing
Some guys have all the luck.
Tens of thousands of bare-breasted young maidens danced in front of King Mswati on Friday—many hoping to catch his eye and become his next wife.
A record 50,000 young women staged Swaziland’s annual “Reed Dance,” taking part in a traditional ceremony now seen as an audition to join King Mswati’s many wives.
Although 11 wives could be quite the nightmare.
Monday, August 25, 2003
Orwell Watch
More scary stuff bubbling up in the UK.
EVEN George Orwell would have choked. Government officials are drawing up plans to fit all cars in Britain with a personalised microchip so that rule-breaking motorists can be prosecuted by computer.
What the hell is going on over there?
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Heat Wave
It was real hot here today, 40C with the humidity, and we were told to sip our air conditioning too. As bad as it was here, it’s pretty sad and sick to read about what happened in France to up to 10000 elderly. More sad is the care that some of them didn’t receive.
“At first she was put in an air-conditioned revival room but then she was abruptly transferred to a ward where it was 50C [122F]. I talked to two nurses. One said: ‘I don’t have time to bother with her.’ The other said: ‘Get her out of here.’ But the doctors would not let her go. Three days later, she died.”
Monday, August 11, 2003
Eat their young
A sad story on dear Maggie, who has been cast adrift by the conservatives of Britain.
Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady who transformed Britain during her 11 years tenure as Prime Minister, is today a sad shadow of her former self.
Thirteen years after she was evicted from Downing Street, Lady Thatcher is a lonely, forgetful and almost friendless figure on the edge of senility, a television documentary on her life, to be telecast tonight on Channel 4, indicated. Carol, her daughter, a journalist who interviewed both her parents for the programme, is deeply worried about her health and her finances.
Like the Canadian conservative party, who ignore Mulroney’s great accomplishments, Britain has done the same with their former great leader. Check out an interesting websitededicated to her.
Friday, August 8, 2003
Stuck on a fence
Charles Krauthammer on how the West Bank security fence has somehow become the issue du jour - to the point of derailing the whole Roadmap to Hell. The red herrings and dead ends that we are sent down are creating the real mideast quagmire.
In America, we build stretches of fence along the Mexican border to prevent foreigners from coming in to take jobs. It takes a lot of audacity to demand that Israel stop building a fence whose purpose is to prevent foreigners from coming in to commit mass murder.
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Hatebots
A powerful entry at LGF illustrating a major factor in the Pali problem: the indoctrination of very small children into the cycle of violence.
This ongoing atrocity, perhaps more than any other single factor, is what has caused me to lose all sympathy for the Palestinian “cause”—the way they gleefully, willingly, boastfully turn their own children into mindless hatebots.
Religion of Peace Watch
LGF has yet another entry showing the evil Saudi empire at its worst.
...and to think the France will be a Muslim country in 30 years. Yikes!In Saudi Arabia, torturing your Asian maid to death with boiling water and then conspiring to conceal the murder will get you two years in jail. (Hat tip: Allen E.)
..
But openly practicing Christianity will get you decapitated.
Monday, July 28, 2003
EU Lunacy
Another series of examples of the lunacy that is the EUreaucracy.
What’s next, mandatory safety goggles for exotic dancers in case a tassel rotates out of control and takes out an eye?
One can only hope Canada doesn’t catch the disease. Centralization gone mad.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Cuba’s dictator
Speaking of old dictators, Samizdata reports that Cuba could be free of Castro within the year…
Fidel Castro, in a speech to the masses, has announced that he will not accept any more aid from the European Union as people connected with this organization have made critical comments about some of the policies of his regime.
All you Canucks that insist on going down to Cuba on cheap holidays should know better too...look who you’re propping up.
Mega government
Examples of Europe’s biggest growth industry- the EU bureaucracy - keep coming.
Picture Italy without its curvy, half-clad television hostesses. Imagine a Western European city where men and women pay the same amount for insurance, regardless of how recklessly they drive or how long they live. Ponder going to school in Britain without references to Jack the engineer and Jill the nurse.
Has anyone done a study on how much this mega-disaster is going to cost the average European? It is truly frightening the extent of regulation about to occur.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Throw him in
Why bother with a trial for Idi Amin Dada, president for life.
Idi Amin, Uganda’s former dictator, was invited back by the country’s government yesterday to face trial as he lay dying in a Saudi hospital.
Save the aggravation and throw him to the crocodiles.
This guy must be in the top 10 of murderous dictators.
Blogs will set you free
Joe at WOC reports that the Iranian mullahs are blocking blogs. The answer to this affront to change is to set up ways around this blockade - and there are ways around it (short of the government banning all internet).
Mirroring efforts need to get started in a serious way. Beginning with Hossein’s Farsi blogging instructions, and spreading to include Iranian blogs generally. If you can help, have ideas to offer, or have pointers to relevant information, please use the Comments sections or get in touch with me directly.
Finally the little guy in the world can help bring down dictatorships, using blogs.
Tuesday, July 8, 2003
Twilight of the West?
Silentrunning has an entry about the decline of Europe - as linked here previously.
Europe appears to be suiciding. Birth rates are well below replacement levels and dropping, and the gap is incresingly being filled with immigrants, a large proportion of them Muslim. Church attendance is declining, and wasn’t high to start with.
Canada and the US probably are not too far behind.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
History Lesson
A history lesson for Europeans, courtesy of Samizdata. The EU is slowly heading towards what the Duke fought against 200 years ago - French domination.
On this day, nearly two hundred years ago, the artillery, cavalry and red coated infantry of Britain, along with their Dutch and Prussian allies, finally put an end to the tyrannical rule of Napoleon Bonaparte on the Belgian wheat fields of Waterloo, near Brussels. It was the Duke of Wellington’s greatest triumph.
Britain needs a new Duke.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Under God
Say what you will about religion and state, but it is a fact that the Judeo-Christian culture built America, the most successful nation on earth.
That said, the building of the Super EU without any references to God or Christianity has offended the newly minted Poles, according to my friend at Mader Blog.
They’ve only been in the EU since the weekend, and already Poland is raising a little hell - so to speak:
Future European Union member Poland said Tuesday it would insist the bloc’s Constitutional Treaty make reference to Christian values, siding with the views of Polish-born Pope John Paul II.
There’s hope for the EU yet - although fighting the French will be difficult.
The best thing for this new super EU is not to happen at all.
Globalization watch
You hear a lot about globalization, but I bet most today don’t have a clue what it means, other than violent protests. Here’s a story about Nike - I hate their prices, but you can harldy say they are abusing the local people.
Nike. It means victory. It also means a type of expensive gym shoe. In the minds of the anti-globalization movement, it stands for both at once.
The thing I hate the most about Nike being in Vietnam is that it could be said that they are taking jobs away from North Americans. The idea is that we are bringing up the level of the poor country with unskilled jobs, so they can afford the products of our skilled workforce.
Sometimes the gap is too wide, which to me means we sacrifice one or two generations to achieve our goal. This is what makes freer trade so politically difficult when one needs to show the proof right away.