Here we go again

The New Democrats are screaming for Norman Spector's blacklisting, after he called Belinda Stronach a word that rhymes with "ditch":

Opposition MPs called on media organizations Tuesday to fire a former Brian Mulroney aide and former ambassador to Israel for referring to Belinda Stronach as a bitch.

New Democrat MP Dawn Black said it was "shocking" that anyone would use Norman Spector as a political commentator and columnist after his remarks.

Spector told a Vancouver radio talk show that Stronach's public breakup last year with Peter MacKay, who is now foreign affairs minister, as well as a role she is alleged to have had in the marital problems of former Toronto Maple Leaf Tie Domi, means she is a bitch.

"I think she's a bitch. It's as simple as that," Spector said. He added that he believed 90 per cent of men would agree, considering her involvement with the former National Hockey League player and her break-up with MacKay.

[...]

Judy Wasylycia-Leis, another New Democrat MP, said Spector's comments were an affront to not only Stronach, but to women throughout Canada.

"What he has done is absolutely unforgivable," she said.

"It hurts women everywhere, and there is no place for that kind of language and that kind of attitude in our society today."

Spector's political commentaries are regularly published in the Globe and Mail. He is also a frequent commentator on TV and radio.

Next time, Mr. Spector, make sure you only use the word "bitch" when referring to male politicians. Got it?

Damian P.

Dear Senator Kerry... (II)

Seriously, the Republican Party appreciates all your help, but now you're starting to overdo it a little.

Sincerely,
Karl R.

Update: seriously, Kerry says his line about getting "stuck in Iraq" was directed at President Bush, not at members of the U.S. military:

Shortly before noon, Tuesday, Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, responded, insisting in a statement that he had not belittled the intelligence of soldiers serving in Iraq, but rather, that of "the president who got us stuck there."

I believe him. But his response - especially that bizarre press release - betrays the shocking political tone-deafness he displayed in 2004.

Dear Senator Kerry...

The cheque is in the mail.

Sincerely,
Karl R.

Halloween viewing

TVguide.com lists the best Halloween-themed TV shows of all time. Most glaring omission: the "Hallelujah House" episode of King of the Hill.

Stuck in the '80s says 1982's Poltergeist was the best horror movie of the decade. There are several glaring omissions from their list as well, including Child's Play, Maximum Overdrive and Caddyshack II.

RetroCRUSH.com, of course, goes all out for Halloween, including the classic "Worst Costumes of All Time" feature.

Damian P.

Happy Halloween! (By the way, you're going to Hell)

If it's October 31, it's time once again for...Jack Chick tracts!

If you're planning to give these away tonight, you may also want to invest in an anti-toilet-paper defence system.

Damian P.

Cops out of control

An article in the Washington Post describes how, right under the Americans' noses, the Iraqi police were taken over by armed sectarian militias:

Seventy percent of the Iraqi police force has been infiltrated by militias, primarily the Mahdi Army, according to Shaw and other military police trainers. Police officers are too terrified to patrol enormous swaths of the capital. And while there are some good cops, many have been assassinated or are considering quitting the force.

"None of the Iraqi police are working to make their country better," said Brig. Gen. Salah al-Ani, chief of police for the western half of Baghdad. "They're working for the militias or to put money in their pocket."

U.S. military reports on the Iraqi police often read like a who's who of the two main militias in Iraq: the Mahdi Army, also known as Jaish al-Mahdi or JAM, and the Badr Organization, also known as the Badr Brigade or Badr Corps.

One document on the Karrada district police chief says: "I strongly believe that he is a member of Badr Corps and tends to turn a blind eye to JAM activity." Another explains that the station commander in the al-Amil neighborhood "is afraid to report suspected militia members in his organization due to fear of reprisals."

American soldiers said that although they gather evidence of police ties to the militias and present it to Iraqi officials, no one has ever been criminally charged or even lost their jobs.

Among the worst of the suspected Mahdi Army members is Lt. Col. Musa Khadim Lazim Asadi, station commander of the Ghazaliyah patrol police. "He has stated to us that he does not believe the Mahdi Militia is a bad organization," a military report said. "He had a picture of Sadr in his vehicle until we said something about it."

Appalling.

Damian P.

Papers shredded

Of the top 25 most heavily circulated newspapers in America, sales are declining for 22.

Damian P.

Somalia: War clouds gathering

Increasing numbers of rival outsiders do not bode well.

Talks in Sudan between Somalia's weak interim government and Islamists have been delayed.

An Islamist delegation has flown to Khartoum but they say they will not take part in the talks unless Ethiopian troops leave Somalia.

Ethiopia denies having a fighting force in Somalia, but says it has hundreds of military trainers with the government.

Some fear a regional conflict breaking out in Somalia, amid reports that Eritrea backs the Islamists.

The AP news agency says it has seen a confidential UN report, in which diplomats say 2,000 fully armed troops from Ethiopia's rival, Eritrea, are helping the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Eritrea has previously been accused of arming the Islamists but denies the claims.

The UN report also says there are between 6-8,000 Ethiopian troops, according to AP...

And there is also supposed to be an African peacekeeping force coming (hah! see end of link).

Jumpin' Jack's view of the situation is here.

Mark C.

Afstan: More on the enemies within

Ezra Levant expands the net:

...Every time a Canadian soldier dies in Afghanistan, it is turned into a moment of national bathos.

The death makes the TV news when it happens, then when the body is put aboard a plane for Canada, then when the plane lands, then again at the funeral. Each of those events is not news -- each is an editorial effort by our press corps to create a public feeling of hopelessness and pointlessness.

The Taliban doesn't have a media relations bureau these days. It doesn't need one, it has the CBC.

It doesn't need a spokesman, it has Jack Layton, making the case for a humiliating evacuation of our troops.

The war against terror will not be won or lost by our brave soldiers. It will be won or lost by our media.

Now that's terrifying.

And if Taliban Jack bin Layton thinks negotiating with the Taliban is a good idea, he should read this (at end) and this (via flit).

Mark C.

Update: The truth exposed--but not by our media--about the useful idiots' "...newest poster boy, Francisco Juarez - - Canada’s first 'Afghan war resister'..."

Upperdate: A good post at ProudToBeCanadian Blog on media bias concerning rallies.

“Thousands are expected”… especially with these radio ads I mean news spots!

Afstan: The enemies within

The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford eviscerates her own paper (via Norman's Spectator--text not online even using Google News, title is "Losing the PR war at home and abroad"):

If the Taliban are clobbering the Canadian Forces in the Afghan public relations war, as some fear, then bloody hell if the same thing isn't happening here at home.

Over the weekend, modestly attended and utterly banal peace marches held in cities across the country led Saturday radio and TV newscasts and print websites (including The Globe and Mail's) and Sunday newspapers, but barely a scintilla of attention was paid to the awarding of prestigious Canadian military decorations and honours.

The awards were announced midafternoon on Friday -- in plenty of time for newspaper deadlines -- but rated only a mention in some major Saturday papers, including The Globe (which ran only a brief, as we call minuscule stories, and then in only some editions) and the National Post. In Toronto, for instance, the only daily to run a proper story on Saturday was the Sun….

In a world where the word "hero" has all but lost its meaning -- attached as it is to almost anyone who endures a mild trauma without mental collapse or meets the now low threshold of nominal good citizenship -- about 40 gallant Canadian soldiers went almost entirely unrecognized by the press, and thus by their countrymen.

It is little short of disgraceful, and I have to say, when I saw my own newspaper on Saturday -- we managed to run four other Canadian Forces-related stories that day, including one which suggested that soldiers are low-achieving losers [full text not officially online] in flight from dead-end jobs -- I was ashamed.

A good post on the medals is here.

Wear red on Fridays and remember the rallies for our troops in Ottawa, Toronto, and elsewhere.

Update: The full text of the story is here (read the rant at the end). These paragraphs in particular bear quoting:

Two of the awards -- for Captain Nichola Goddard, a 26-year-old from the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Shilo, Man., who was given the Meritorious Service Medal, and 22-year-old Private Kevin Dallaire, who was mentioned in dispatches -- were made posthumously. Capt. Goddard and Pte. Dallaire were both killed in action, respectively, on May 17 and Aug. 3...

Well, the boys are back home now, minus their friends and mates killed in action or accident, and not all of the living have their limbs or their eyes, and all are changed. There are many days when they must wonder if somehow, they aren't still in the presence of some enemy even less readily identifiable than the Taliban.

Upperdate: Red Friday rally in Edmonton, Nov. 3.

Uppestdate: This story from Kingston of course got only local coverage:

Drizzle that threatened to turn into a downpour was not enough to keep hundreds of people from saluting Canadian soldiers during Saturday's Freedom of the City parade.

Spectators clogged the sidewalks in front of City Hall to get a glimpse of the historic parade, in which around 1,500 military men and women took part.

As requested by the military, many of those who came to watch wore red articles of clothing to show support for the soldiers. Some wore red shirts, others red gloves and still others protected themselves from the rain with red umbrellas.

Whatever the colour, it was clear they were there to show solidarity...

In keeping with tradition, Mayor Harvey Rosen inspected Hazleton's honour guard and then proclaimed the force worthy of entering the city.

"Whereas the mayor and city council, together with all Kingstonians, acknowledge and appreciate the contributions that the more than 30 units that make up the Kingston Garrison have made and continue to make to the Kingston community," Rosen said, "Therefore be it resolved that freedom of the city be exercised on October 28, 2006." With that, Hazleton's honour guard fixed bayonettes in unison and raised the Canadian flag and the flag of the Canadian Forces as the national anthem played...

Mark C.

Preston Manning gets health care right

A mixed system à l'européen is essential (via Norman's Spectator).

To compare Canada -- not to the United States -- but to other industrialized countries with universal access to health care, our model suffers.

Adjusted for age, Canada spends more on health care as a percentage of our economy than all but two countries with universal health care (Iceland and Switzerland).

But it places 24th out of 27 for the number of doctors per 1,000 people, thirteenth of 22 in access to MRIs, 17th of 21 in access to CT scanners, seventh of 12 in access to mammographs, last of 16 nations in our access to lithotriptors, and 20th out of 27 in infant mortality.

Then there are waiting lists: In Alberta in 2006, the median wait time to receive a CT scan is four weeks, nine weeks for an MRI and 81/2 weeks between referral by a general practitioner and an appointment with a specialist.

The Canada-wide averages are similar.

Are such lengthy queues inevitable?

No. At least seven diverse OECD countries -- Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg and Switzerland -- have shorter waiting times and better health-care outcomes in virtually every category. They too offer their citizens universal health-care coverage regardless of ability to pay.

Except for Switzerland, all spend less on health care as a percentage of their GDP than we do.

What else do these seven countries have in common?

All have cost-sharing for publicly insured specialists and/or hospital services, a competitive hospital sector within the public insurance program, fee-for-service remuneration for specialists and a competitive parallel insurance sector to keep the government sector in check.

In other words, they all take a mixed approach to health-care payment, delivery and insurance...

...there are needed reforms which require changes in federal legislation and policies: Amend the Canada Health Act to allow the provinces to increase freedom of choice on public and private options for health-care delivery, payment and insurance. On the fiscal side, Ottawa should end federal transfers in support of health care and instead transfer the equivalent tax room to the provinces [my emphasis - MC]...

See also:

"Single-tier (which actually ain't) health care is unsustainable"
"The end of socialized medicine as we know it?"

Mark C.

Tactical flying by CF Hercs in Afstan/New naval choppers to carry troops

See this post at The Torch.

Mark C.

Googling your way to the top

How to take over your subject on the Internet.

Mark C.

Americans just can't stop dissing Canada

First, that campaign commercial by the party on behalf of (a correction thanks to Anne's comment) a Tennessee Republican; now this, from the NY Times Book Review:

To the Editor:

In his review of “Johnny Cash: The Biography” (Oct. 15), Douglas Brinkley observes: “You can’t walk into a Starbucks and not hear him singing Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ or Ian Tyson’s ‘Four Strong Winds.’ The redemptive sprit of Johnny Cash — the American spirit — is very much alive.” Redemptive maybe, but not American. Gordon Lightfoot? Ian Tyson? Both Canadian, eh.

Renton Stevenson

Toronto

I am confident however that Stompin' Tom's voice will be safe from appropriation by those cultural imperialists (I invite American readers to check the link for a better understanding of le Canada anglais profond).

And at least Rush Limbaugh did not attack Michael J. Fox for being Canadian--though some comments on blogs have taken Mr Fox to task for being Canadian.

Mark C.

Update: My mistake in not mentioning that Mr Fox has been a US citizen since 2000. He may now be a dual-citizen (h/t to Ran Hay for raising this in "Comments").

The old Gray Lady ain't what she used to be

Headline of the day: "U.S. Jobs Shape Condoms’ Role in Foreign Aid".

Restrain yourselves, mates.

Mark C.

On the other hand: Why we must try in Afstan

Mark Steyn gets to the heart of the matter:

The invaluable Brussels Journal recently translated an interview with the writer Oscar van den Boogaard from the Belgian paper De Standaard. A Dutch gay "humanist" (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool), van den Boogaard was reflecting on the accelerating Islamification of the Continent and concluding that the jig was up for the Europe he loved. "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."

Too many of us are only good at enjoying freedom. That war-is-never-the-answer 25 percent are in essence saying that there's nothing about America worth fighting for, and that, ultimately, the continuation of their society is a bet on the kindness of strangers -- on the goodnaturedness of Kim Jong Il and the mullahs and al-Qaida and what the president called "al-Qaida lookalikes and al-Qaida wannabes" and whatever nuclear combination thereof comes down the pike. Some of us don't reckon that's a good bet, and think America's arms-are-for-hugging crowd need to get real. Van den Boogaard's arms are likely to be doing rather less of their preferred form of hugging in the European twilight.

Mark C.

Putin and Chirac: Merchants of death

Why don't the lefties get upset about this? Let's have some equal opportunity bashing.

Russia surpassed the United States in 2005 as the leader in weapons deals with the developing world, and its new agreements included selling $700 million in surface-to-air missiles to Iran and eight new aerial refueling tankers to China, according to a new Congressional study.

Those weapons deals were part of the highly competitive global arms bazaar in the developing world that grew to $30.2 billion in 2005, up from $26.4 billion in 2004. It is a market that the United States has regularly dominated.

Russia’s agreements with Iran are not the biggest part of its total sales — India and China are its principal buyers. But the sales to improve Iran’s air-defense system are particularly troubling to the United States because they would complicate the task of Pentagon planners should the president order airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities...

France ranked second in arms transfer agreements to developing nations, with $6.3 billion, and the United States was third, with $6.2 billion.

The leading buyer in the developing world in 2005 was India, with $5.4 billion in weapons purchases, followed by Saudi Arabia with $3.4 billion and China with $2.8 billion...

And look at what the French are up to regarding China. More details on their arms sales are here

Mark C.

"Cuckoo" in Afstan

More sobering thoughts about the NATO mission. And if the UK has equipment shortfalls...

Tony Blair's most trusted military commander yesterday branded as 'cuckoo' the way Britain's overstretched army was sent into Afghanistan.

The remarkable rebuke by General the Lord Guthrie came in an Observer interview, his first since quitting as Chief of the Defence Staff five years ago, in which he made an impassioned plea for more troops, new equipment and more funds for a 'very, very' over-committed army...

...'Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan - anyone who had read any history, anyone who knew the Afghans, or had seen the terrain, anyone who had thought about the Taliban resurgence, anyone who understood what was going on across the border in Baluchistan and Waziristan [should have known] - to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we're still going on in Iraq is cuckoo,' Guthrie said.

In a unprecedented show of scepticism towards Blair, he said the Prime Minister's promise to give the army 'anything it wants' was unrealistic. 'I'm sure he meant what he said. He is not dishonest. But there is no way you can magic up trained Royal Air Force crews, or trained soldiers, quickly. You can't magic up helicopters [my emphasis - MC], because there aren't any helicopters,' said Guthrie, promoted from chief of army staff to become overall head of the military for Blair's first term of office.

Guthrie said Britain was 'reaping the whirlwind' for assuming too great a 'peace dividend' [my emphasis - MC] after the Cold War and risks being ill-equipped for a whole new set of dangers...

Mark C.

Update: With the US Army in southern Afstan. If the NY Times Magazine account is representative, things will indeed be difficult (a follow-up to the article at this post a week ago).

Upperdate: Dutch taking over command from Canadians in ISAF Regional Command (South) on Nov. 1. Good map of distribution of NATO forces at last link.

"Charles to call for Muslim moderation..."

The Prince's heart is in the right--if misguided--place, but I do not see much advance towards dealing with the facts on the ground.

I mean, "uncovered meat" does spoil rather rapidly, does it not?

Mark C.

Update: More on Islamic extremism in Australia from Counterterrorism Blog.

New planes for Air Force: Critics take aim at media and politicians

A Cannonball Press report:

OTTAWA (CBP): Critics of Canadian journalists and politicians are increasingly concerned about how these groups are dealing with the acquisition of a new tactical airlift airplane for the Canadian Forces.

Experts cited by these critics have pointed out that the Canadian Air Force must very soon replace a large part of its aging fleet of CC-130 Hercules transports. These experts say it is clear that within the replacement window only one airplane, the American Lockheed Martin C-130J, will be available to meet the Air Force's needs. The Conservative government now appears poised to order this newest version of the Hercules.

But for some time the European company Airbus has been promoting its A400M as a competitor to the C-130J. Experts respond that the A400M has not yet flown, and will not until some time in 2008 at the earliest. They note that Airbus has manufactured neither a military transport, nor a turboprop-powered plane, before and that the A400M's engines are new and unproven. According to experts these facts can only raise serious concerns about Airbus' ability to meet production, testing, and entry into service timelines for the A400M.

Experts go on to note that Airbus in now in turmoil as a company. Its two major civilian airliner projects are in trouble. The A380 superjumbo jet's introduction into airline service has been delayed two years. The mid-size A350 is undergoing a complete redesign that will push back its production several years.

These other massive challenges only make experts more doubtful that the company will be able to produce the A400M on schedule. They add that, if the A400M is not available as currently promised, by the time it is available much of the Canadian Hercules fleet will be out of service.

Experts also note that the C-130J is already in service in considerable numbers with the US military, and with several other countries' air forces. The US military has more on order. According to experts the C-130J--the tactical airlifter preferred by the Canadian Forces--can be procured in time to meet Canada's needs, while it is almost certain the A400M cannot.

Critics are wondering why the Canadian media are not presenting the facts of this matter. They complain that our media are more interested in sensational stories aimed at stirring up controversy than in dealing intelligently with the real issue--whether or not the Canadian Forces get the right equipment, on time, to do effectively the jobs Canadian governments demand of them.

Canadian politicians for their part, critics say, are utterly hypocritical in their approach to large military purchases. "Our politicians say one thing when in government and the exact opposite when in opposition," one critic remarked. "Why do our media not report that both the Conservatives and Liberals have flip-flopped over the C-130J buy?" this critic asked.

Critics also wonder why the opinion of any NDP MP--or of Liberal National Defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh--is sought about any issue related to military equipment.

When asked to comment, Jane Taber of Bell Globemedia asked "What's a journalist?"

Mark "Cannonball" C.

Dishonesty in Journalism, Graduate School Division

Canadian "gotcha" journalism at its worst: David Akin of CTV typifies Canadian "reporters" by putting political spin on a defence story whilst not mentioning facts crucial to the matter (and at least some of which he full well knows).

As a key checkpoint approaches for a multi-billion dollar contract to buy new military planes, new questions are being raised about the suitability of the Canadian defence department's preferred choice to win that contract, the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules...

Now, some of Lockheed's competitors are trying to knock holes in the C-130Js suitability...

There is in fact only one conceivable competitor, the Airbus A400M which will not even fly, at the unlikely earliest, for over another year and is several years away from entering service. Writing "some of Lockheed's competitors" misleadingly makes the average reader think there are several possible alternatives to the C-130J--which is simply untrue--and so to infer that something really funny must be going on.

They [competitors] note, for example, that the C-130J was recently dropped from a competition the U.S. military has underway for a new purchase of short-haul cargo planes.

"It seems incredible to me that we're looking at planes that other nations, like the Americans, have rejected," said Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic.

The U.S. army dropped the 130J from its latest competition citing concerns that it did not meet certain technical specifications the U.S. Army required. The U.S. Air Force has several C-130Js in active service, including on combat missions. Lockheed Martin has filed an official protest with the U.S. government and wants back in the Army competition...

This is a competition for the "Joint Cargo Aircraft" that the US Army wants for fairly short-range missions with smaller loads in intra-theatre lift (e.g. within Iraq or Afstan). The aircraft are to be bought for both the Army and the Air National Guard. Lockheed Martin pitched the C-130J but the Army recently ruled it out of the competition, for two real reasons: it is too big for the Army's needs, and the Army feared that C-130Js would be used by the Air Force for its purposes, not the Army's.

Mr Akin writes "The U.S. Air Force has several C-130Js in active service...", implying limited interest in the aircraft. That is far from the whole truth, and for some odd reason non-US customers of the plane are not noted.

Over 180 C-130J and C-130J-30 aircraft have been ordered and over 121 delivered. Orders are: US Air Force, Air National Guard, Marine Corps and Coastguard (89 x C-130J and C-130J-30, 20 x KC-130J tankers), UK (ten x C-130J, 15 x C-130J-30, all delivered), Italian Air Force (12 x C-130J, ten x C-130J-30 all delivered), Royal Australian Air Force (12 x C-130J), Kuwaiti Air Force (four x C-130J-30) and Danish Air Force (three x C-130J-30, all delivered, plus one ordered in July 2004).

In April 2004, the US Marine Corps formally accepted the first KC-130J tanker / transport into service. The aircraft was first deployed in combat in April 2005 in Iraq.

And quoting Dipper Dawn on technical defence matters with a straight keyboard would be hilarious if it were not so duplicitous. Moreover, given the figures listed just above, surely a real reporter would have clarified Ms Black's assertion that "...we're looking at planes that other nations, like the Americans, have rejected..." But a little bit of economy with the truth can go a long way in spinning a story.

Back at Airbus:

Airbus says it would still be able to deliver new planes to Canada just as fast as Lockheed will deliver new C-130Js [and I have some nice land cheap in Florida for you - MC]. The Canadian contract stipulates that the first plane must be delivered within three years of the contract being signed.

Industry and government officials expect the contract to be signed sometime in the fall of 2007, which means the new planes will go into service some time in 2010.

"We hope the Canadian government will consider our plane as well," said Anne Healey of EADS Canada. "Let there be a competition. Let the best plane win."..

Mr Akin fails to mention that, given all the turmoil at Airbus, there is every reason to think the A400M will not meet [see Update at link] its production, testing and delivery schedules (especially as it will have an all-new engine and as Airbus has never built a turboprop military transport before). Which would leave the Canadian Air Force almost right out of tactical tranports since much of our existing Herc fleet will be in no shape to continue flying by the time the A400M actually could be delivered. Utterly dishonest journalism; Mr Akin is well aware of the A400M's problems as I messaged him about them.

Mr Akin, having failed to report objectively on the C-130J/A400M question then starts slinging his mud:

...before he became Canada's top soldier, Hillier was on the staff of General Patrick O'Donnell. O'Donnell retired to head up a consultancy, CFN Consultants, and is now the registered lobbyist for Lockheed Martin. The firm Hill and Knowlton is the registered lobbyist for Airbus. It's chief executive is Michael Coates, who worked on the last two Conservative election campaigns, including coaching Prime Minister Harper for the leaders' debates. Gordon O'Connor, before entering politics, worked as a lobbyist at Hill and Knowlton and one of his clients was Airbus...

Oh my God! More skullduggery from lobbyists! Quel scandale possible! This in not a political story, it is a story about military requirements and the ability of two manufacturers to meet them. But that simple reality does not suit Mr Akins' sensational purposes. Double hurl.

For some real lobbying, see the first part of this post, already linked to above; a story that Mr Akin has not explored, why I cannot imagine.

By the way, the version on CTV news was even worse. The J sure is a good-looking plane though. And I loved the shot of an A400M fuselage under construction.

A final point: last fall the Liberals were planning to fast-track the purchase of C-130Js--the aircraft the Air Force wants--and the Conservative opposition were stupidly calling "foul" then. Why did Mr Aikin not bring that up in his piece? There simply is no real story here, other than what one can concoct.

Mark C.

Al Qaeda to Canada: Pull Out or Else

Al Qaeda has taken notice of Canada and they know how to manipulate anti-war activists to their advantage. So far, terrorists have noticed that we aren't budging. Now comes a threat:

"Despite the strong, increasing opposition to spread its forces in the fire of South Afghanistan, it seems that they will not learn the lesson easily," Hossam Abdul Raouf [a member of al-Qaeda's information and strategy committee] writes.

"They will either be forced to withdraw their forces or face an operation similar to New York, Madrid, London and their sisters, with the help of Allah."

The document, written in July, was obtained and translated by the SITE Institute, a U.S. non-profit group that monitors terrorist Web sites for clients, many of them in government.

It is the second reference in recent weeks to al-Qaeda singling out Canada because of its role in Afghanistan.

Last month, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, referred to Canadian troops in Kandahar as "second-rate Crusaders."

The entirety of the document published by SITE is not available to the public, a summary gives good insight into how the terrorists think:

Concluding the analysis, Roauf finds a “bright horizon” in the future for the Taliban, noting that the NATO forces that will receive the “weight of the Crusade” in Afghanistan do not possess the courage or military ability to defeat the Mujahideen. He also explains that despite the negative features of democracy, it proved advantageous to the Muslims in the War in Afghanistan due to the constraints public opinion places on a leader’s action.

The document then finishes:

“Perhaps the most important thing to be learned from this study is that the circumstances in South Afghanistan announce the forthcoming expulsion of Crusading forces, in particular from the three major provinces: the province of Helmand, where the British forces are stationed, the province of Qandahar, where the Canadian forces are present, and the province of Uruzgan, where the Dutch forces are positioned. This is as a result of the complex problems these forces face and the increase of public opposition to their mission in Afghanistan. This will be especially true as their human losses get more serious”.

Jon N

US Military Recruits

A new report by the Heritage Foundation finds the US military continues to attract a healthy representative sample of Americans. It shows that young Americans are still up to the challenge of confronting evil. Not the ones who protest for peace as if terrorists care about what they have to say, the ones who do something about it (and risk their lives for it). Now why won't the media recognize that?

From Who Are the Recruits? The Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Enlistment, 2003–2005 by Tim Kane, Ph.D.:

Indeed, in many criteria, each year shows advancement, not decline, in measurable qualities of new enlistees. For example, it is commonly claimed that the military relies on recruits from poorer neighborhoods because the wealthy will not risk death in war. This claim has been advanced without any rigorous evidence. Our review of Pen­tagon enlistee data shows that the only group that is lowering its participation in the military is the poor. The percentage of recruits from the poorest American neighborhoods (with one-fifth of the U.S. population) declined from 18 percent in 1999 to 14.6 percent in 2003, 14.1 percent in 2004, and 13.7 percent in 2005.

This report updates the previous Heritage Foun­dation report, with data on all U.S. recruits during 2004 and 2005. We introduce the term “wartime recruits” to identify volunteer enlistees in all branches during 2003, 2004, and 2005. Like the previous report,[3] the analysis considers the follow­ing characteristics:

Household income,
Level of education,
Race/ethnicity, and
Regional/rural origin.

In summary, the additional years of recruit data (2004–2005) sup­port the previous finding that U.S. military recruits are more similar than dissimilar to the American youth population. The slight dif­ferences are that wartime U.S. mil­itary enlistees are better educated, wealthier, and more rural on aver­age than their civilian peers.

Recruits have a higher percent­age of high school graduates and representation from Southern and rural areas. No evidence indicates exploitation of racial minorities (either by race or by race-weighted ZIP code areas). Finally, the distri­bution of household income of recruits is noticeably higher than that of the entire youth population.

Demographic evidence discredits the argument that a draft is necessary to enforce representation from racial and socioeconomic groups. Addition­ally, three of the four branches of the armed forces met their recruiting goals in fiscal year 2005, and Army reenlistments are the highest in the past five years. A draft is not necessary to increase the size of the active-duty forces. Our analysis using Pentagon data on wartime volunteers effectively shatters the case for reinstating the draft.

Jon N

Still no need for "Smiley's Canadians"

During the election campaign the Conservatives, still on a learning curve, promised to "Expand the [non-existent] Canadian Foreign Intelligence Agency" [see "Securing our borders" at link]. Not a good idea for the reasons given at this earlier post (pace the views of Sir Richard Dearlove in the story quoted below).

CSIS rather should be given a strengthened capability to collect security (i.e. counter-terrorist) intelligence abroad--as the head of CSIS argues:

The head of Canada's spy agency says CSIS must expand its ability to work abroad in an era when Canadians increasingly turn up in hotspots as soldiers, hostages and refugees.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Jim Judd said Friday the agency needs to beef up its capacity to "operate effectively outside of Canada" in protecting the country's security.

"National borders are only peripherally relevant to the vast majority of threats we deal with now or to the risks to Canadians, at home or outside Canada," Judd told the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.

Judd said CSIS efforts to support the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, help rescue hostages in Iraq and evacuate Canadian citizens from strife-torn Lebanon represent "a departure from past operations."

"And it is clear that we need to strengthen our future capacity to do more of this nimbly and effectively," he said. "This will entail not only further investments in people but, as well, the infrastructure to support them outside of Canada."..

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in May the federal government would either create a new spy agency [my emphasis - MC] or expand the mandate of CSIS...

The promise about a new foreign intelligence agency is one the Conservatives should not keep. And CSIS' mandate does not need to be expanded as the CSIS Act fully allows it to collect security intelligence abroad. It's simply a question of resources and political direction.

From the Act; note there is no geographic limitation:

12. The Service shall collect, by investigation or otherwise, to the extent that it is strictly necessary, and analyse and retain information and intelligence respecting activities that may on reasonable grounds be suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada and, in relation thereto, shall report to and advise the Government of Canada.

Mark C.

The matador wins

The Taurus has died.

If Ford learns anything from the Taurus experience, it will be that it needs to gamble big on design again, Mr. Phillippi [veteran industry analyst who runs marketing research firm Auto Trends Consulting Inc.] said. Ford's newer vehicles like the Five Hundred and the Edge don't go far enough, he said...

'Nuff said.

Mark C.

Afstan: A pessimistic assessment by a good Canadian blogger

Celestial Junk (who also runs the excellent MediaRight.ca site, "Canadians and NATO in the Afghan Conflict : Daily News and Op-ed") posts a very good assessment of how thing are going in Afghanistan.

I generally agree but think (hope?) the conclusion--"The Afghan mission will fail"--may be premature. Let's see what the next few months (tipping point?) bring, and if pressure can get the non-Dutch and non-former Warsaw Pact Euros (esp. Germany, France, Italy and Spain) to do a bit more. Striking that Romania and Poland are up to it but not...

I especially like the analysis of the Canadian scene; Craig Oliver et al. make me hurl.

Mark C.

"World History - As it Really Happened"

From frequent contributor Dan in Van, this note via his [evil Republican] sister:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and *lobster in the winter. [*Note: not the Orthodox.]

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

... Liberals and Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women.

The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant . Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done.

Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. [Does 'enlightened' refer to bonfires in Vénisseux and Grigny?]

That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. [Don't know why... They got it for nothing.]

Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers. And to more liberals just to [goad] them.

Off to St. John's

Back Tuesday morning. Have a great weekend.

Damian P.

Not racist, just bad

Frank J. has the best response I've seen to charges that TV and radio ads for Tennessee Senate candidate Bob Corker are "racist."

That said, the TV spot would likely turn me against voting for Corker - it reeks of desperation (even though Corker is leading in the polls) and, to be honest, I think it's kind of cool that Harold Ford, Jr. got invited to a Playboy party. Worst of all, the commercial plays to American voters' ignorance of the Canadian Forces' tireless, dangerous work in Afghanistan.

Damian P.

Cars in 2005, buses in 2006

French "youths" have moved on from cars and turned their attention to public transit:

[Dominique de Villepin] pledged "exemplary" action against the gangs of hooded youths, some brandishing guns, who terrorised residents during attacks on four buses on Wednesday night.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the defence minister, has accused the youths involved of attempted murder.

In Bagnolet, in eastern Paris, a dozen masked youths, five of them armed, torched a bus after one held a gun to the driver's head. The driver and passengers escaped unharmed.

In Nanterre, west of the capital, hooded youths set a second bus ablaze, leaving ten passengers just enough time to escape.

"Thankfully, there was nobody disabled on board, or it could have ended badly," a police official said.

In Athis-Mons, to the south of the capital, three hooded youths ordered passengers to get out before throwing a Molotov cocktail into a bus, which briefly caught fire before the driver extinguished the flames.

A fourth bus was set ablaze in the Lyons suburb of Vénisseux, while youths hurled stones at buses, cars and police vehicles in the Paris suburb of Grigny.

What will they burn next year? Airplanes?

Damian P.

BBC medal: Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Golden Oakleaves, Swords and Diamonds

The enemy within:

I wouldn't know where to start in tackling the political correctness of BBC drama, but I think the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves [my emphasis - MC] would go to Spooks, BBC1's flagship series about impossibly right-on MI5 agents. The series was originally praised (by the BBC) for its accuracy about the real work of the Security Service. So what did it kick off with on the first episode? A pro-life extremist bomber out to cause mayhem. Come on, you must know about them! No? Well, what about episode two, which tackled the equally pressing issue of racist extremists in league with Right-wing politicians plotting mass murder of immigrants?..

The medal in fact should be the "Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves".

But in today's world the Beeb might perhaps win the title medal for being PC:

The BBC responded in a statement: "It was entirely legitimate for BBC News to broadcast the Taliban's views. Reporter David Loyn made the Taliban's intention to increase suicide attacks patently clear...

Good on the Beeb, eh? or rather--what? Hurl.

Mark C.

No blogger expects the Spanish Inquisition!

"Read the transcript. It speaks volumes," writes Andrew Sullivan about his bizarre radio interview with Hugh Hewitt yesterday. It certainly does, but probably not the way Sullivan thinks. Andrew, when Hugh started the interview by asking why you hadn't accepted his invitation to be on the show before, may I suggest that "I just had better things to do" might not have been the best answer?

I still read Sullivan's site regularly, and I'm looking forward to reading his book. Ideologically, I'm probably closer to him than I am to Hewitt. But if Sullivan spoke to me the way he spoke to Hewitt, I would have hung up on him.

Damian P.

Who controls the mail?

A good argument for privatizing Canada Post, or at least ending its monopoly on regular mail delivery: members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, one of the most militantly left-wing unions in the country, appointing themselves postal censors.

Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow nor refusal to deliver an anti-gay pamphlet will keep the mail from getting through.

That seemed to be the message Thursday from Canada Post in reacting to a brief walkout over the letter carriers union's refusal to deliver a pamphlet the union regards as "homophobic" and "hate mail."

The problem began Wednesday when letter carriers at Station F on the city's east side were told they had to carry the pamphlets or face disciplinary action, said Ken Mooney, the Vancouver local president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

"One person actually refused to touch it and there were others who said they are not going to deliver it," said Mooney.

But Canada Post spokeswoman Colleen Frick had a different version, saying the only postie required to carry it on his route was being "intimidated" by his colleagues.

"He did not refuse it," she said. "He was basically intimidated into not delivering it and that's not appropriate."

The pamphlet is the September edition of The Prophetic Word, published by the Fundamentalist Baptist Mission in Waterford, Ont. The article that prompted the dispute was called The Plague of this 21st Century: The Consequences of the sin of Homosexuality (AIDS).

The pamphlet certainly sounds disgusting, but it is the government's right to decide whether it should be criminalized as hate speech or banned from the mail, not postal workers. On principle, I would not support such a move, but at least Members of Parliament have some democratic legitimacy. The members of CUPW are acting like, well, fundamentalists.

Damian P.

Justin Trudeau should talk to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili

As well as to people in Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Kurdistan, Chechnya, Venezuela, France, Russia, Slovakia, China, Japan, Korea (both), the US...add your own suggestions. This person lives, as so many other Canadians do, in an Ibbitsonian fantasy world of "diverse metropolitan multiculturalism".

Justin Trudeau has weighed in on the Quebec political debate, calling nationalism a small, old idea "from the 19th century" that has no relevance today.

Nationalism "builds up barriers between peoples" and has "nothing to do with the Canada we should be building,'' the eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau said Thursday on Canada AM...

Like blinkered father, like blinkered son.

Mark C.

Afstan: The Germans notice Canada

Given the history (and the domestic Muslim population) one can well understand the German reluctance to take on a full combat mission. But when they're good, they're very, very good. From Der Spiegel:

Some countries feel they are shouldering a disproportionate share of the war's risk and lethality.

It's not a difficult conclusion to arrive at. Countries like Canada, the Netherlands, Britain and the US have faced a fierce and rejuvenated Taliban in Afghanistan's southern provinces, while other countries -- like Germany -- have avoided conflict by staying in the relatively stable northern [and Western - MC] provinces...

Even Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay entered the fray last week by saying more was needed from certain allies in the dangerous Kandahar region.

"We're calling upon the other NATO countries inside Afghanistan to similarly volunteer and participate in this difficult part of the mission where we are making progress," MacKay said in Ottawa in a speech to some 80 foreign diplomats, including many heads of mission from NATO countries...

Yet even as diplomatic pressure mounts, it may not, for Germany at least, be quite so simple. Sending German soldiers to participate in Operation Enduring Freedom was -- despite a sense of urgency following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- a controversial issue. Caveats were included to prevent German troops from engaging in combat outside the areas of Afghanistan they are responsible for securing. Indeed, the German mandate sees its 3,000 troops more as a peacekeeping unit than as a combat force.

And any change to that mandate has likely just become more politically untenable. The tabloid Bild Zeitung on Wednesday published five photos disturbingly reminiscent of Abu Ghraib showing German soldiers playing with a skull found near Kabul...

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has backed calls...to send up to 2,500 more troops to the troubled south. But NATO and its allies have not managed to get some governments reluctant to enter the Kandahar region to step forward. The Secretary General did applaud the additional almost 1,000 Polish troops and several hundred Danes, Czechs and Romanians that have either recently gone or are currently making their way there. "Many nations have stepped up to the plate," he said.

What an irony if a photo of a skull were instrumental in the failure of a mission.

Mark C.

Civic-minded

Perhaps the last thing that unites the RoC and Quebec is, oddly, the Honda Civic.

That it should ever come to this--both in terms of the country and my own car choice.

Tested '06 Civic EX and '06 Ford Focus SE. Civic surprised by having, to me at least, better road feel than Mazda 3. Another surprise: Focus best handling of the three. But Ford feels cheap in comparison, and a very good deal '06 I drove had no tach. Also have never been sure about the styling, plus one wonders about Ford's future. Decided Subaru's small trunk space and lack of folding rear seat would not do. Wish I were younger and a bit more devoted to pure fun (like our son).

So am getting the Civic, despite an annoying digital speedo and a tach below it that is a bit hard to notice. For personal reasons had finally to get an auto but the Civic does have a five speed and one can downshift from 4th to 3rd easily for two-lane highway passing.

The inevitable development of modern industrial society: Peugeot 505 in the 80s, VW Jetta in 80s and 90s, then Ford Contour until now (I keep cars a long time). Today a Honda. Is a Korean car inexorable?

But the Audi A4--if only! An engineering afterthought: both the two-decade old Peugeot and VW designs were happy cruising at 160 kph on German Autobahnen. Never tried anything similar with the Contour, but I doubt either it or the Honda would be comfortable at that speed. A certain amount of regression, or at least building for what the market expects and the government allows. Yet fast driving in a capable car is safer than slower but bad driving in a mediocre vehicle--in principle and if drivers actually know how to, er, drive.

If there is interest would be glad to compare scooting fast on German Autobahnen with Italian autostrada--guess on which drivers scored best (two decades ago)?

A final thought, in terms perhaps of standards of living: In the UK a similar Civic costs around C$36,000. Yikes.

Mark C.

Free speech still safe in Denmark

A Danish court has thrown out a defamation lawsuit against Jyllands-Posten regarding the blasphemous cartoons from Hell:

The City Court in Aarhus today rejected a lawsuit brought by seven Danish Muslim groups claiming that the 12 drawings printed in Jyllands-Posten were intended to insult the prophet and make a mockery of Islam.

While the cartoons may have offended some Muslims, there was no basis for claiming that the newspaper sought to belittle their faith, the court said.

Carsten Juste, Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief, hailed the decision as a victory for free speech. "Anything but a pure acquittal would have been a disaster for press freedom and the media's possibility to fulfil its duties in a democratic society," he said.

The Muslim groups behind the lawsuit said they would appeal.

Damian P.

Why can't we get jobs?

Events to commemorate the one year anniversary mark of their Paris riots have started (via Le Figaro):

Trois autobus ont été incendiés en périphérie de Paris et de Lyon, et une quatrième tentative a échoué de justesse, dans la nuit de mercredi. Certains des assaillants étaient équipés d'armes de poing. Les régies de transports s'apprêtent à mettre en place des déviations pour éviter les zones sensibles.

Plusieurs attaques ont visé des autobus dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi. L'évènement le plus grave a eu lieu à la limite de Bagnolet et Montreuil, en Seine-Saint-Denis. Une dizaine d'hommes cagoulés, dont cinq portant des armes de poing, ont attaqué dans la nuit un bus de la ligne 122. Les assaillants ont pointé une arme sur la tempe du chauffeur, avant de le faire descendre du véhicule avec les passagers. ''Ils ont ensuite dérobé le bus, qu'ils ont conduit sur une courte distance, puis y ont mis le feu'', a déclaré un porte-parole de la RATP. Jeudi matin, les chauffeurs de la ligne 122 se sont mis en grêve.

Despite what critics say about the lack of assimilation of these African and North African young people, they have done exceptionally well in assimilating the French culture of turning to government first to solve problems. Since when has demanding jobs ever helped anyone?

Even in a best case scenario for these "youths" a few of their most vocal leaders will be given government jobs to shut them up and then useless training programs will be deployed to give the public an impression that the government is "doing something" about the problem. Will it go away? Well if violent street mobs are to be annual spectacles, no.

Violent mob actions do more harm to the unemployed and marginalized youths that perpetrate them than to their perceived oppressors. If employers don't want to hire "youths," it's because they can't trust people they associate with rioters. It is an unfair association, and there should be no group who want to limit it more than those very youths. While pistol wielding thugs burn vehicles, don't expect any friendly action.

Jon N

She asked for it

This kinda puts Peter MacKay's comments in perspective, doesn't it? (Note that Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali isn't some fringe character, but the most prominent Muslim cleric in Australia.)

Damian P.

Beating a dead dog

The controversy over Peter MacKay's allegedly sexist remarks just won't go away:

The opposition Liberals added fuel to the fracas by serving up eight legal affidavits from MPs swearing they heard MacKay’s heckle, even though it was not recorded in Hansard — the official written record of House proceedings.

The House of Commons Speaker, Peter Milliken, who presides over decorum, agreed to listen more closely to an audio version of the proceedings, in which MacKay can be faintly heard shouting in the background during a heated debate.

Outside the Commons, several Liberal women gathered at a microphone to condemn what they described as MacKay’s “sexist remark” and to implore him to either come clean or quit.

“He is coward, and he is a man without honour,” MP Marlene Jennings said.

“He’s on an audio tape, it’s clear that he said it,” added Judy Sgro, another Liberal MP. “Does he think the people of Canada are stupid?”

I think this controversy is ridiculous, and the Liberals' self-righteousness even more nauseating than usual, but MacKay is making it worse for himself - and his party - by his refusal to admit to making comments recorded on tape.

Damian P.

Impostor!

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

(via Andrew Ian Dodge)

Damian P.

Argentina names Iranians for bombing Jewish centre/BBC bias

BBC World Television carried the story at 1800 EDT today. The reporter, noting that no real progress had been made for twelve years, attributed--no shoot--this unexpected turn of event to domestic and international Jewish presure. So you see the Joos really are the true enemies of Iran.

This is the story in print (not what the reporter said on air). Note the misleading headline, "Iran charged over Argentina bomb; The Iranian government and Lebanese militia group Hezbollah have been formally charged..." Nuts. Neither the country nor its government has been "charged", individuals have been named. Furthermore, if you read the AP story at the end of the post, it would appear that no formal legal charges have yet been issued. Prosecutors have rather recommended to a judge that he issue arrest warrants; it seems to me that charges as such will not exist unless the judge actually issues the warrants. Typically slack and misleading BBC reporting, but is anyone surprised anymore (great Daily Mail story at link)?

Argentine prosecutors are calling for the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others.

Chief prosecutor Alberto Nisman accused the Iranian authorities of directing Hezbollah to carry out the attack.

Hezbollah and Iran both deny that they were involved in the blast, which killed 85 and wounded 300.

The blast, on 18 July 1994, reduced the seven-storey Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) community centre in Buenos Aires to rubble...

Local Jewish groups have long said the bombing bore the hallmarks of Iranian-backed Islamic militants.

Iran has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement in the attack.

Last November, an Argentine prosecutor said a member of Hezbollah was behind the attack and had been identified in a joint operation by Argentine intelligence and the FBI.

But Hezbollah said that the man, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, had died in southern Lebanon while fighting Israel.

The 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, also remains unsolved.

A much fuller--and I think accurate--AP story is here.

Mark C.

Not marriage, but pretty close

The New Jersey Supreme Court stopped short of legalizing gay marriage, but it has ordered the state to grant same-sex couples the same rights and benefits to which other couples are entitled:

New Jersey's Supreme Court has left it to the Legislature to decide the rules for gay couples who want to marry in the state.

In a 4-3 ruling Wednesday, the court said the state constitution gives same-sex couples the same civil rights afforded to heterosexual couples, but the lawmakers must decide how to grant those rights.

"The Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or create a parallel statutory structure, which will provide for, on equal terms, the rights and benefits enjoyed and burdens and obligations borne by married couples," the court held.

The court ruled that the state does not have a "legitimate governmental purpose" in denying same-sex couples "the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts."

Like it or not, same-sex marriage - or some variation thereof - is coming, and I suspect the default conservative position in a few years will be "civil unions but not marriage." Andrew Sullivan, as you might expect, has much more.

Damian P.

The Canadian Constitution: A political fantasy

Andrew Coyne writes a column today about the follies of Mickey I.'s embracing Quebec as a "nation". About which I commented:

Andrew: Perhaps you didn't notice, but this para virtually describes the Austo-Hungarian "Dual Monarchy" solution after the Ausgleich of 1867:

"But here's a funny thing about contracts: They are struck between equals. As equals, neither may presume to govern the other. Quebecers could have no say in the government of the rest of Canada, and the rest of Canada could have no say in governing Quebec. That may not be the legal effect of the Ignatieff proposal, but it would surely, over time, be the political effect: to de-legitimize federal authority in Quebec, and marginalize the province's MPs in the bargain."

And what would be so bad about that? Clearly Quebec feels very little in common with RoC (which increasingly feels very little in common with itself now that "English Canada" has vanished to be replaced, for many, by Ibbitsonian diverse metropolitan multiculturalism--see his column today.

In A-H the two parts had almost complete autonomy:

"A common Ministerial Council ruled the common government: it comprised the three ministers for the joint responsibilities (joint finance, military, and foreign policy), the two prime ministers, some Archdukes and the monarch. Two delegations of representatives, one each from the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments, met separately and voted on the expenditures of the Common Ministerial Council, giving the two governments influence in the common administration..."

Not that the details of the A-H common government would be applicable here. Great constitutional minds could no doubt work out a uniquely Canadian solution!

Ibbitson (full text not officially online):

"...This country, with all of its diversity and tolerance and pluralism, is founded on solid principles of equality and respect that are enumerated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in the laws of the land. We assume that everyone accepts that Charter and those laws until they do something to convince us otherwise."

How odd. I thought this is what the country was founded on:

"WHEREAS the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom:"

Mark C.

Iraq: What's at stake for the US--at home and over there

1) Michael Scheuer outlines the consequence of a Democratic victory in November:

In a world where leading Western experts have consigned Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to near-irrelevant status, the gangly Saudi is on the verge of seeing the forces he leads and inspires knock off their third infidel government. Not bad for a guy running from rock to rock and cave to cave...

...bin Laden, et. al, know the biggest prize looms just ahead — the chance that the Republican Party will be ousted from one or both houses of Congress. There are many factors contributing to this possibility: the Foley abomination, other corruption cases, the trumped?up "crisis" over First Amendment rights and the administration's ill-informed and ham-fisted handling of the Iraq and Afghan wars. If the Republicans are ousted, pundits on both sides of the aisle will find the causes strictly in America's navel.

But what will bin Laden and his Islamist allies think? Well, if Republican defeat comes to pass, they will first thank the Almighty — "Allahu Akhbar!" or "God is the greatest!"...

If Americans vote for what sounds like sweet reason from the Democrats, bin Laden and company will rejoice. What they will hear is the death knell for any prospect of effective U.S. military resistance to militant Islam...

2) Frederick Kagan considers the blow to American honour a bug-out would bring:

It's been coming for a long time: the idea that fixing Iraq is the Iraqis' problem, not ours -- that we've done all we can and now it's up to them...

The current crisis in Iraq is no more just an Iraqi problem than it has ever been. The U.S. military destroyed Iraq's government and all institutions able to keep civil order. It designated itself an "occupying force," thereby accepting the responsibility to restore and maintain such order. And yet U.S. Central Command never actually made establishing order and security a priority...

By allowing violence and disorder to spread throughout the country, the Bush administration has broken part with the Iraqi people and ignored its responsibilities. It has placed U.S. security in jeopardy by creating the preconditions for the sort of terrorist safe haven the president repeatedly warns about and by demonstrating that no ally can rely on America to be there when it counts.

A rapid U.S. withdrawal would lead to catastrophe in Iraq...

If America withdraws its forces before setting the conditions for the success of the Iraqi government, we will have failed in our mission and been defeated in the eyes of our enemies. We will have dishonored ourselves.

Our enemies watched the debacle in Somalia and drew conclusions: America is weak, unable to stomach even the smallest level of casualties and willing to lose rather than fight...the protracted insurgency and the apparent weakening of U.S. will are emboldening them once again...

Those who have criticized the administration for failing to send enough troops to fight the war, failing to plan adequately for the postwar crisis and failing to react properly when it came are right [my emphasis - MC]. But Democrats should not be so quick to embrace these attacks unless they are willing to accept the corollary: Just because Bush did the wrong thing in 2003 doesn't mean that we can do the wrong thing now.

I thought I might give more of Mr Kagan's column (which Damian's post linked to above mentions) as it deals with a crucial issue. If there is a bug-out (however politely disguised) from Iraq, I also find it hard to see a good conclusion in Afghanistan.

Together the two columns present a depressing picture of what is increasingly seeming the inexorable course of events. What a bloody mess.

Mark C.

The Joooooos did it

I have never seen the BBC series Spooks (occasionally shown under the title MI:5 on A&E), but this does not encourage me to start watching:

The main plot involves a group of ruthless Mid-East hijackers who take over a London embassy and shoot people every hour. They turn out (of course) to be Jews in disguise. We have a Jewish traitor in high places with dialogue invoking the classic ‘can’t serve two masters’ accusation: ‘I asked which side he would fight on in a war between Britain and Israel. He just gave me his answer.’ The plot also relies on the same argument as the 9/11 conspiracy theory that Mossad blew up the twin towers because Muslims aren’t smart enough: MI5 realise the baddies must be Jewish because they’re too clever for their own good (and merciless and self-serving, naturally).

Spooks has featured Muslim extremists as villains in the past, so this probably isn't antisemitism so much as a deeply misguided attempt at "balance." But I'll bet Al-Manar is already looking for room on its schedule.

Damian P.

Afstan: Where the fighting is/Helping the government

An excellent analysis with maps by Bruce Rolston--taking on Jeffrey Simpson in the Globe today (full text not officially online, Mr Simpson does make some good points).

And a good article decribing what our military are doing to help the central Afghan government (though the headline, "Canadians go undercover in Afghanistan", is all-too-typical of the sensationalism of the Globe's headlines these days and does not reflect the story at all).

Embedded deep inside key ministries of the Afghan government, a handful of senior Canadian officers -- all volunteers -- are stretching the definition of military assistance...

But measured by long-term impact, the no-strings-attached expertise, strategic advice and basic organization the group is bringing to Afghanistan's sometimes chaotic ministries may have an effect as far reaching as the combat campaign being waged far to the south in Kandahar by a Canadian battle group of more than 2,300 soldiers.

The high-powered, low-key and ambiguously named Strategic Advisory Team is the brainchild of General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff. Gen. Hillier, an outgoing military man who commanded North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops in Afghanistan in 2004, built a set of personal relationships while he was in Kabul that included President Hamid Karzai...

The officers all bring experience of managing major projects but even more important is what they are not.

"We're not a bunch of drive-by MBAs," Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Aubin, the group's chief of staff, said derisively of the steady stream of highly paid, short-term consultants that infest Kabul.

Gen. Hillier's experiment remains unique -- a new foray for the Canadian military and the Afghan government, which can tap a proven management resource.

"Hillier saw a need for consistent application of assistance and expertise to Afghan ministries," all of which were struggling with complex problems usually with limited staff, often with little background or experience in running big organization, Col. Dixon said.

"Our job is to work ourselves out of a job."..

Mark C.

The best new show you aren't watching

I've posted a review of the latest (and best) episode of NBC's low-rated 30 Rock here.

Damian P.

Update: someone at NBC must have read that post, because they're moving the show to Thursdays.

Gas-guzzling environmentalists

TMZ.com contrasts some prominent Hollywood celebrities' heavily publicized use of hybrid and electric cars with their use of grossly wasteful private jets. One exception: Leonardo DiCaprio, who drives a Prius and flies commercial.

Damian P.

Coughlin: "De-Ba'athification" destroyed Iraq

Daily Telegraph defence correspondent Con Coughlin says Iraq was lost in the first few weeks after Saddam Hussein was overthrown, when the Americans shut down Iraq's old military and government institutions:

The neocon vision was to raze every remnant of the Ba'athist regime and build its utopian vision of a Western-style democracy in Iraq as a beacon that would expose the cracks in the tired autocracies that characterise the modern Middle East. The fundamental flaw in their argument was that at no stage did the neocons think it necessary to consult the 22 million Iraqis who had been liberated from Saddam's rule and had no appetite for Western democracy, preferring, rather, to be governed on the more traditional basis of tribal custom.

By the time I arrived in Baghdad in early May 2003, the neocons were well on the way to dismantling every aspect of the old Ba'athist infrastructure. Inadequate planning by the Pentagon - where leading neocons such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith were responsible for post-war Iraq - meant all the government buildings and ministries that had been left untouched by the bombing campaign were destroyed by gangs of looters who roamed unchecked throughout the city for weeks after hostilities had ceased.

This wanton orgy of destruction was compounded by the decision taken by Paul Bremer, the preposterous American-appointed governor, to undertake a wholesale de-Ba'athification of Iraq's military, security and administrative institutions. At a stroke, hundreds of thousands of bitterly resentful Iraqis - most of whom had no love for Saddam - became recruiting fodder for the insurgency.

Coughlin may be right, though I can't help thinking we'd be hearing plenty of horror stories if Saddam's men had remained in place. Frederick Kagan has more about the Bush Administration's gross failure to maintain security on the ground, and why American victory in Iraq is still absolutely essential.

Damian P.

New car ideas sought

I've just started looking. Test drove a Mazda 3 but was, to my amazement, very disappointed with the lack of road feel though the handling was excellent. Almost felt American, yikes! Any suggestions in that area (Focus, Civic)? I'm starting to think of a Subaru Impreza 2.5 sedan. Our son bought one several years ago and I went with him on the test drive. Absolute blast.

Mark C.

Canadian Forces Combat Camera on YouTube and Apple iTunes

Their page here, YouTube, and Apple iTunes

Mark C.

God must be a Top Gear fan

...because Richard Hammond's recovery is absolutely astonishing.

The new season of Top Gear has been postponed, but Fifth Gear returns to British television on October 30, and should be available for download here shortly thereafter.

Damian P.

What one soldier thinks of Taliban Jack bin Layton

I received this in a message from the Conference of Defence Associations:

Ole Jack Layton ~ Thoughts From A Soldier

Dear Jack Layton,

You sit there in your quiet home, no fear is in your heart,

You sleep soundly certain that it won't be blown apart.

Your children they can go to school and play out in the park,

They've never seen a bomb explode, heard air raids in the dark.

They've never seen dead bodies piled up on the street,

Your wife, she won't be beaten, treated like a piece of meat.

You are free to form opinions, read any news print you can see,

You enjoy your rights and privileges in this country wide and free.

The reason you can live like that is because I fight your wars,

I fight and push the enemy back, I keep them off our shores.

I am here and you are there pretending you know best.

Well Ole Jack now listen close while I get this off my chest.

You have the right to criticize, you have the right to complain

You don't have the right to drag me down in a stupid political game.

The thing about your rights Ole Jack, the part you can't comprehend

Is you work in the very system, the democracy I defend.

I stand on fences around the world protecting those that need it,

It is not for you to determine Jack whether or not it's worth it.

Ask the people in Afghanistan if they want me to stay,

Women and children depend on me - you say just walk away.

I don't need your changing policy, trying hard to not lose face,

What I need is you behind me, helping protect this place.

You know its hard to do this when I think I'm all alone.

I hear stories of young punks pissing on memorial stones.

I read the papers over here and they tell me what is said.

Canadians are losing part I can't get it through my head.

You say that it is hopeless, it really brings me down

Don't tell my mother we're losing, don't spread that rumour around.

I'm doing good, were winning here but no-one will believe

Because we are way over here where no one there can see.

Women here can work you see, children starting school.

We built a working government, we've broken Taliban rule.

We are so close to winning this, it's not too far away

History will show that we were in the right to stay.

When that brilliant day arrives, victory you'll claim is ours

You'll forget you said to run away - forget you are a coward.

On that day just thank me for my courage and my trouble,

Find another place that needs help, and send me on the double.

written by Josh Forbes Calgary Alberta

Mark C.

Darfur: Why Khartoum can snub the UN (amongst others)

It's all about oil--and those who want in on it.

To understand Sudan’s defiance toward the world, especially the Western world, check out the Ozone Café.

Here young, rich Sudanese, wearing ripped jeans and fancy gym shoes, sit outside licking scoops of ice cream as an outdoor air-conditioning system sprays a cooling veil of mist. Around the corner is a new BMW dealership unloading $165,000 cars...

While one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises continues some 600 miles away in congo, across Khartoum bridges are being built, office towers are popping up, supermarkets are opening and flatbed trucks hauling plasma TV’s fight their way through thickening traffic.

Despite the image of Sudan as a land of cracked earth and starving people, the economy is booming, with little help from the West. Oil has turned it into one of the fastest growing economies in Africa — if not the world — emboldening the nation’s already belligerent government and giving it the wherewithal to resist Western demands to end the conflict in Darfur.

American sanctions have kept many companies from Europe and the United States out of Sudan, but firms from China, Malaysia, India [my emphasis - MC], Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are racing in. Direct foreign investment has shot up to $2.3 billion this year, from $128 million in 2000, all while the American government has tried to tighten the screws...

As long as Asian countries are eager to trade with Sudan, despite its human rights record, the American embargo seems to have minimal effect. The country’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, keeps demonstrating his disdain for the West by refusing to allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur, despite continued bloodshed and pressure from the United States to let the peacekeepers in...

At times I wonder if Asians do not have even more prejudice towards blacks than many whites.

Khartoum thus doesn't need to worry about repercussions to booting the UN's main man.

THE United States has condemned the Sudanese Government’s decision to expel the head of the United Nations mission to the country and said that international action was needed to contain the worsening conflict.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, described as “unfortunate in the extreme” the move to order Jan Pronk, the Dutch head, to leave.

The Sudanese Government said that it had expelled him for saying that its army had recently suffered defeats against rebels in Darfur. Khartoum, already at loggerheads with the international community over moves to send a 22,000-strong UN force to Darfur, was infuriated by comments made by Mr Pronk on his blog...

Meanwhile, well-intentioned but silly Canadians still see a lead role for this country in dealing with Darfur.

Mark C.

Afstan: Hookers for the Hollanders?

A female Dutch mayor thinks troop morale might be improved by Netherlands nookie (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs).

A Dutch mayor has raised eyebrows by backing the idea of sending prostitutes to accompany Dutch troops on foreign missions.

"The army must consider ways its soldiers can let off steam," Annemarie Jorritsma, mayor of the town of Almere in central Netherlands and a member of the ruling VVD liberals, told Dutch television.

"There was once the suggestion that a few prostitutes should accompany troops on missions. I think that is something we should talk about," she said, adding that the prostitutes would keep soldiers from turning to local women...

Sounds like the right sort of idea to encourage the French to join the fighting in the south.

Mark C.

Bombardier bombing

And I just cannot see the proposed, larger C Series being a success even if they do build it--Embraer is just too far ahead of Bombardier, along with the 737-700 and the A-318.

Bombardier's aerospace division is cutting 1,330 jobs in Montreal and Belfast, Northern Ireland as it slows production of its regional jets in response to sagging demand.

"The restructuring of the airline industry continues, with relatively few orders for regional jets in the 70- to 90-seat jet category being awarded in recent years,'' Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace, said Tuesday in a statement...

Beaudoin said the situation should "improve," however, as a result of numerous sales campaigns Bombardier is pursuing.

He said the slower regional jet output will be offset, in part, by a boost in production of its Q400 turboprop plane.

The company expects to deliver about 50 of the turboprops in the current fiscal year, and about 65 in the following year...

The company's Montreal-area sites will see 485 jobs cut starting in late November, while 645 jobs will be cut at its Belfast site beginning in January. Along with those cuts, 200 management and other positions will be eliminated.

A bigger jet?

The cuts don't come as a surprise, said Sims, "because we really have not seen the regional jet market come back up."

But interestingly, added Sims, Bombardier is also "trying once again to figure out whether or not they should be building a new plane -- and that is a slightly larger regional jet that will seat up to 130 people."..

Along with the Q400 airliners, Bombardier said it also plans to produce more of its Q-series turboprop family, including the Q200 and Q300, starting in October.

The increase will mean about 50 Q-series deliveries in the current fiscal year and about 65 in the next...

I fervently hope that the current mess doesn't give Bombardier the political leverage to convince the government to buy an unsuitable military version (which does not yet exist) of the Q Series for the Air Force's new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft.

Mark C.

No malice, just short-sightedness

In response to this post, which alleged that Chapters/Indigo won't sell Mark Steyn's new book in their stores, several readers noted that they did see a few copies of America Alone for sale at some Chapters and Indigo stores in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.

The company is selling it through their website, so I think we can give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they just underestimated demand for the book (currently #2 at Amazon.ca).

Damian P.

It's About Control

In today's National Post, a story about government control:

OTTAWA - The Quebec Ministry of Education has told unlicensed Christian evangelical schools that they must teach Darwin's theory of evolution and sex education or close their doors after a school board in the Outaouais region complained the provincial curriculum was not being followed.

"Quebec children are legally required to follow the provincial curriculum ... but these evangelical schools teach their own courses on creationism and sexuality that don't follow the Quebec curriculum," said Pierre Daoust, director-general of the Commission Scolaire au Coeur-des-Vallees in Thurso, Que.

The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.

Jon N

What the Arab world wants

"It is difficult in history to find any civilization that asks as much of others as does the contemporary Middle East—and yet so little of itself," writes Victor Davis Hanson at his new PJM-hosted blog.

Damian P.

No apology

Contrary to last week's reports, the Chinese government says North Korea did not apologize for its nuclear test:

China is denying South Korean news reports last week that said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed regret for carrying out a nuclear test on October 9.

The reports said Kim Jong Il had made the remarks to Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan, who visited Pyongyang last week to deliver a message from President Hu Jintao.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao spoke to reporters at a regular briefing Tuesday.

"The reports are certainly not accurate. I have not heard any information that Kim Jong Il apologized," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with envoy Tang in Beijing following his visit Pyongyang, earlier cast doubt on the reports. Rice said Tang did not tell her that Kim Jong Il had either apologized for the October 9 nuclear test or said that he would not ever test again.

Damian P.

Behind the veil

Anne Appelbaum has one of the better columns I've seen about the controversy over Muslim women wearing the veil:

Critics call the veil a symbol of female oppression or rejection of Western values. Defenders say that it is a symbol of religious faith and that it allows women to be "free" in a different sense -- free from cosmetics, from fashion and from unwanted male attention. Debate about the veil inevitably leads to discussions of female emancipation, religious freedom and the assimilation, or lack thereof, of Muslim communities in the West.

And yet, at a much simpler level, surely it is also true that the full-faced veil -- the niqab, burqa or chador -- causes such deep reactions in the West not so much because of its political or religious symbolism but because it is extremely impolite. Just as it is considered rude to enter a Balinese temple wearing shorts, so, too, is it considered rude, in a Western country, to hide one's face. We wear masks when we want to frighten, when we are in mourning or when we want to conceal our identities. To a Western child -- or even an adult -- a woman clad from head to toe in black looks like a ghost. Thieves and actors hide their faces in the West; honest people look you straight in the eye.

Given that polite behavior is required in other facets of their jobs, it doesn't seem to me in the least offensive to require schoolteachers or civil servants to show their faces when dealing with children or the public. If Western tourists can wear sarongs in Balinese temples to show respect for the locals, so too can religious Muslim women show respect for the children they teach and the customers they serve by leaving their head scarves on, but removing their full-faced veils.

Damian P.

Update: Cathy Young has a good piece on the subject, too.

Remember 1983, too

In addition to the Hungarian Revolution, today is also the anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing, in which Hezbollah killed 241 American servicemen. The ramifications of the attack, and America's muted response, are still being felt today.

Damian P.

Ford's freakin' finances/Chrysler's cost-cutting

Sure beats me how they (and GM) are going to get out of their holes without much better product. Chrysler may have an edge there, but I suspect by becoming essentially a niche producer.

1) Ford:

Ford Motor Co. said Monday its loss widened to $5.8 billion in the third quarter, weighed down by the costs of its massive restructuring plan aimed at reshaping the company and cutting expenses so it can compete better against lower-cost rivals from overseas.

It was the largest quarterly loss in more than 14 years for the nation's second biggest automaker, and company officials predicted things would get worse in the fourth quarter as market share drops and Ford pays for further plant closures and restructuring costs...

Ford's new chief executive, Alan Mulally, called the latest results unacceptable [sounds like Liberal governments talking about the Iranians; where did that get us? MC]...

He said there's a clear opportunity to return to profitability by building more vehicles that will sell across the globe, increasing productivity and quality, more collaboration with parts suppliers and unions, and accelerating efforts to reduce plant capacity to match lower consumer demand for Ford products...

Er, like, how?

2) Chrysler:

DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group has tapped executives from its German parent's Mercedes division to work on a restructuring plan, including cutting $1,000 (533 pounds) from the cost of each vehicle it makes, the company said on Friday.

"We are now putting a plan together to put Chrysler back on track," DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told CNBC in an interview from Paris. "We first have an opportunity with eight new vehicle launches this year for the Chrysler Group, but we are also looking at the cost side."..

Chrysler has said health care costs for its U.S. work force amount to $1,400 per vehicle and the company has so far failed to win a cost-cutting concession on health care from the UAW of the type the union granted to its larger rivals General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

A study released earlier this month by automotive consultant Harbour Felax Group estimated Chrysler made a narrow profit of $144 per vehicle in North America last year.

If the company succeeded in cutting its per-vehicle costs by $1,000, that would give it a profit margin only slightly below Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

All Dr. Z has to do is dream. Let dem guten Doktor know what you think.

Mark C.

Remember 1956

The brave but doomed Hungarian uprising against Communist rule began fifty years ago today. (In a crual irony, commemorations in Budapest turned into an anti-government demonstration which was put down by force.) Personal recollections can be found here and here.

Damian P.

Jihadis yesterday and today

A fascinating article in the New Statesman (gasp!) at its end draws an interesting conclusion (but avoids some consequences): the rise of Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism in India after the elimination of the moribund Moghul Empire following the 1857 Mutiny had similar causes as the rise of Islamic extremism today.

The article correctly points out that Indian Muslims felt humiliated by the superiority of the British--both materially and in attitude--and reacted by trying to purify their practise of Islam. Much as Arab Islamists have been doing for quite a while:

...nothing so easily radicalises a people against us, or undermines the moderate aspect of Islam, as aggressive western intrusion in the east: the histories of Islamic fundamentalism and western imperialism have often been closely, and dangerously, intertwined...

What the article ignores is that the Deobandis did not engage, during the remaining eighty years of the Raj after the foundation of their first madrassa, in terrorism against the British. What it also ignores is that Indian Muslims, by their general rejection of Western culture and science, were far outpaced by Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis et al. in "modernizing" their society under British rule.

Compare the intellectual and economic wastelands of the Arab countries with the West, and of Pakistan with India. "Roots" are not always the answer (I'm not sure where East Pakistan/Bangladesh fits in).

Mark C.

Not a Good Thing: Voting whitey off the Island

The longer the colonization, the better off today (via Arts & Letters Daily).

One of the deep questions in economics is why some countries are rich and others are poor. It is widely believed that institutions such as clear and enforceable property rights are important to economic growth. Still, debates rage: Do culture, history, government, education, temperature, natural resources, cosmic rays make the difference? The reason it's hard to resolve this question is that we have no controlled experiments comparing otherwise similar places with different sets of legal and economic institutions. In new research, James Feyrer and Bruce Sacerdote, both of Dartmouth College, consider the effect of a particular aspect of history—the length of European colonization—on the current standard of living of a group of 80 tiny, isolated islands that have not previously been used in cross-country comparisons. Their question: Are the islands that experienced European colonization for a longer period of time richer today?..

Feyrer and Sacedote's key findings are that the longer one of the islands spent as a colony, the higher its present-day living standards and the lower its infant mortality rate. Each additional century of European colonization is associated with a 40 percent boost in income today and a reduction in infant mortality of 2.6 deaths per 1,000 births...

...Exposure to European colonizers, it appears, benefits living standards for reasons apart from the direct effects of government, education, and markets...

The authors also compare the experiences of separate Pacific islands with eight different colonizers: the United States, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Japan, Germany, and France.* Their verdict is that the islands that are best off, in terms of income growth, are the ones that were colonized by the United States—as in Guam and Puerto Rico. Next best is time spent as a Dutch, British, or French colony. At the bottom are the countries colonized by the Spanish and especially the Portuguese...

Is anyone surprised?

Mark C.

Steynless

Mark Steyn says Chapters/Indigo is refusing to sell his book America Alone in their stores, and it looks like he's right - the "store lookup" feature on their website shows nary a copy to be found in Corner Brook, St. John's or Halifax.

This isn't really surprising, for anyone who's ever browsed a Chapters store. In St. John's, at least, the magazine racks will have three or four copies of every left-wing fringe publication you've never heard of, but if you're lucky you may stumble across a month-old edition of the Western Standard. Chapters is selling the book online, but this is a pretty good argument for getting it from Amazon.ca, or Steyn himself.

I'm partway through America Alone right now, and hope to have a review up (likely at Blogcritics) before too long.

Damian P.

Schumacher's (alleged) last race

A reader asked how come I didn't post anything about Michael Schumacher's final F1 race yesterday. The answer is that I posted about Schuey's retirement the day it was announced, and I didn't think I had much to add.

More importantly, I haven't convinced myself he's really gone for good without winning one more championship. Despite a stunning drive yesterday, I just can't see Schumacher doing anything other than going out on top.

Damian P.

Podcasty goodness

I was on Greg Staples's weekly podcast last night. (Most of it, anyway - my computer crashed halfway through, and getting back online took a while.) Jason Cherniak and James Bow were the other panelists. You can download it here or subscribe through iTunes.

And a new edition of Shire Network News, also available through iTunes, is up as well.

Damian P.

"Main Street Bias"

Another critique of The Lancet's controversial Iraq death-toll study. (via Tim Blair)

Damian P.

The next flashpoint

A recent series of Toronto Star reports describes the growing clash between the Somali "transitional federal government" and Islamic extremists who have taken over much of the country, including the capital. What does this have to do with Canada? A lot more than you probably think.

Damian P.

"Permanent Intifada"

Gaza? Baghdad? Try Paris:

On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized, and no arrests made.

The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year.One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence.

National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted — and some now receive police escorts in such areas.

On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old, according to LCI television.

[...]

Michel Thooris, head of the small Action Police union, claims that the new violence is taking on an Islamic fundamentalist tinge.

"Many youths, many arsonists, many vandals behind the violence do it to cries of 'Allah Akbar' (God is Great) when our police cars are stoned," he said in an interview.

Larger, more mainstream police unions sharply disagree that the suburban unrest has any religious basis. However, they do say that some youth gangs no longer seem content to throw stones or torch cars and instead appear determined to hurt police officers — or worse.

"First, it was a rock here or there. Then it was rocks by the dozen. Now, they're leading operations of an almost military sort to trap us," said Loic Lecouplier, a police union official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris. "These are acts of war."

Damian P.

The worst week anyone has ever had

First, Denny Green's Arizona Cardinals blow two 20-point leads against the Bears on Monday Night Football. Then Green has his legendary meltdown at the post-game press conference. And now, the ultimate humiliation: the Cards lost to Oakland.

If Green still has a job next weekend, we can only assume he has incriminating photos of someone. (It's worked for Matt Millen, so far.)

Damian P.

Afstan and Pakistan: The several layers and links of the Taliban

In-depth reporting behind the scenes; Part 2 next week. The Karzai government really does have a problem (see item 4) at link).

Mark C.

The cursed quarterback

Think the football gods are trying to tell Big Ben this just won't be his year?

Amazing trivia noted by the CBS announcers as Morten Andersen was about to kick his game-winning field goal for Atlanta: when he entered the league in 1982, thirteen of hs current teammates hadn't yet been born.

Damian P.

What Canada's war in Afstan is about

A rather decent overview by Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute:

What is dangerous to Canada and our interests is the "bring home the troops" movement's casual disregard for the terms on which we are in Afghanistan.

Every Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan is part of a larger, multinational NATO force that has the full sanction of the United Nations. To withdraw our troops before February 2009 — the date Parliament committed to the UN mission — would be an unparalleled and unprincipled act of unilateralism. In one fell stroke, we would be renouncing the very multilateral institutions we've championed on the world stage for the last half century.

If we have to be in Afghanistan for the next two years to uphold an international principle that is vital to how a "middle power" like Canada needs the world to work, then what are our options? What is the long-term plan?..

The second piece of misinformation spread by proponents of "the mission" is that its ultimate aims are humanitarian, not political and military.

I've been to Afghanistan and if we think opening girls schools is the yardstick for gauging success then we should give up now. Our goal is no more, and no less, than providing the Karzai government with a vestige of political oversight over the country's perennially rebellious south. Creating a more democratic and tolerant Afghan nation is the work of generations, not the job of the Canadian military.

Cut through the bromides and the way forward for Canada is clear.

To ensure that the world's two most important multilateral institutions — NATO and the UN — have a future, we must honour the commitment our Parliament made to extend the Afghan mission to early 2009.

In three years time, though, Canadians will face a clear choice: We either bring our troops home with the honour they have won, or settle on a comprehensive set of new objectives and a time frame to renew the military mission in Afghanistan.

Our NATO allies, the UN, and a public more divided by the day, need to know now what Canada's long-term intentions in Afghanistan are. At a minimum, political leaders and pundits owe it to our troops to put aside phony either/or debates and enjoin in a meaningful discussion about the difficult choice that lies ahead.

Somehow I doubt that intelligent debate will happen. The absurdly partisan terms--on all sides--in which policy is presented in this country almost certainly precludes such a discussion. Thank goodness though for the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence.

Mark C.

UK government funds "covert" moderate Muslim website

However, and rightly, worried one should be about "homegrown terrorism" this sort of tactic seems sure to backfire.

John Reid has issued a dire warning that the Government risks losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qa'eda.

The Home Secretary spoke out at an emergency meeting of ministers and security officials amid an ever-growing threat from home-grown Islamist terror groups.

He called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war and said al-Qa'eda's so-called "single extremist narrative" was proving ever more attractive to young British Muslims...

A key government weapon in the struggle to win hearts and minds is the decision to fund covertly an Islamic website appealing for moderation. A classic of New Labour terminology, it is called the Radical Middle Way. Government documents disclose that the site is "run as a grassroots initiative by Muslim organisations". However, it has "most of its financial backing from the Foreign Office and Home Office". The site uses video and podcasts to spread an "alternative message" to young Muslims. Some content is available through the iTunes website with no indication that it is effectively an arm of Government.

Around 100,000 CDs promoting moderation have also been funded and distributed free to Muslim students as an "antidote", apparently, to the jihadist CDs circulated at universities and colleges...

From a related leader at the Sunday Telegraph:

As we also report today, however, MI5 is barely able to monitor the 12 individuals who have been placed on control orders, never mind the 1,500 people whom they suspect of planning mass murder. The judicial rulings that the Government's anti-terrorist legislation was incompatible with human rights have unquestionably made MI5's job next to impossible on the resources it has been given. More important than providing websites, podcasts and CDs is ensuring that MI5 is able to monitor the terrorists in our midst. The Government must do this now.

In the longer term, it has to ensure that British values are transmitted to, and accepted by, the next generation of Muslims.

Confidence in those values is critical to achieving that goal.

Multiculturalism has been a social and cultural catastrophe [my emphasis - MC]. The sooner it is abandoned, and we instead encourage all groups to commit themselves to a core of liberal values, the better.

An education system, and a Government, that are ashamed [my emphasis - MC] of Britain's past and of its institutions, and feel that they must apologise [my emphasis - MC] at every turn for both, will never succeed in recruiting anyone to the cause of democracy, toleration and peaceful co-existence.

Mark C.

Khanmobile

Flashback to the seventies, with Ricardo Montalban promoting the new "small Chrysler."

Damian P.

Canned outrage

Jack Layton, milking the Stronach/McKay controversy for all it's worth, says the Foreign Affairs Minister should resign for calling Stronach a "dog." Yeah, that's a proportionate response.

The Liberals have had their own run-ins with allegedly sexist comments in the past. (And this Conservative release doesn't even mention the notoriously loutish Doug Young calling Deborah Grey a "slab of bacon.") If the roles were reversed in this scandal, with McKay as the Liberal and Stronach as the Conservative, this would be a one-day scandal, tops.

Damian P.

Keeping results under wraps

This week, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments in the case of Paul Bryan, a British Columbia resident charged under the Canada Elections Act for posting federal election results to his website before the polls closed all across the country.

I agree that the law infringes upon freedom of expression, and is arguably ineffective in the internet age. But I also agree that voter turnout in Western Canada is depressed when Westerners find out the election has effectively been decided, regardless of how they vote. I've always thought the solution is simple: when the polls close in the eastern provinces, the ballots should be locked up and guarded, with the count beginning only when voting has ended all across the country.

Damian P.

Afstan: Dutch reinforcing/French may keep special forces

When the going gets tough...

The Dutch cabinet agreed the deployment of a further 130 ground troops to southern Afghanistan to bring total strength there to 1,530, during the weekly cabinet meeting in The Hague Friday.

Defence Minister Henk Kamp described the decision as 'fine tuning' and said there was no need for parliamentary approval...

From November 1, when the Dutch take over the lead role in southern Afghanistan from the Canadians, a further 200 Dutch troops are to be deployed.

The defence ministry also announced that the six Dutch Apache helicopters [my emphasis - MC] in Afghanistan had been moved Friday from Kandahar airfield to the Dutch headquarters at Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province.

The eight Dutch F-16s [my emphasis - MC] currently based at Kabul are to be moved to Kandahar in mid-November with the aim that they will be able to react more quickly to requests for support in southern Afghanistan.

The French, for their part, may not remove their special forces from Afstan after all.

"Our special forces have always continued to combat terrorism side by side, for example, in Afghanistan," she [Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie] said, though recently there has been some question as to whether France will pull its special forces out of the country.

Alliot-Marie told the AP that France is in the midst of discussions regarding the continued presence of French special forces, which are under separate command from the NATO troops [actually under US Operation Enduring Freedom; see end of link - MC], in Afghanistan...

Canadian media seem have missed these stories; not part of their agenda (see end of link), I guess.

Mark C.

Gray Lady's with Jumpin' Jack

The NY Times is as silly about the US Coast Guard training with its machine guns on the Great Lakes as the NDP.

As a defense against terrorism, militarizing the Great Lakes is a symbolic defeat. And it is another in a series of incremental changes that threaten to change everything that we take for granted about our country.

The question is how far we choose to militarize ourselves at home in response to terrorism. Turning the Great Lakes — even on occasion — into a live-fire zone is the kind of decision that says little to terrorists but speaks volumes to the rest of us.

Lets just get it over with and give up, eh? I'm amazed the Times isn't advocating disarming all US border personnel.

Mark C.

Syracuse University football fruits: Apples or oranges?

PC scores another one. Just learned the "Orangemen" are now the "Orange". Wouldn't want to damage the self-esteem of all those women offensive tackles, would we? Jim Brown's body will lie amouldering in the grave (best running back I ever saw).

Via Fox Sports Radio, which I actually don't like very much--far too raucous and Überjock with far too much self-promotion--but it's what The Team 1200 carries a lot of the time.

The official explanation for the change is here--gobbledygook about branding.

Mark C.

On again, off again, on again...

Andrew Coyne's blog is active. For now.

Damian P.

Autocide

The Times reports that French "youths" are burning 112 cars a day. (via LGF)

The thing is, this is the same country that introduced the 35-hour work week, so how do we know it's not a government plan to benefit French automakers?

Damian P.

Obligatory post on the "dog" scandal

The media and opposition always have a field day when a Conservative MP says something that can be construed as "insensitive," so Peter McKay should have thought before opening his mouth. (And he definitely shouldn't have denied making the remark, considering that it was caught on tape.)

But if you're expecting any sympathy for Belinda Stronach, you're reading the wrong blog. This post (warning: NSFW pictures) from Enjoy Every Sandwich - hands down, Canada's most underrated blog - during the Stronach/Domi mess says it all about McKay's ex.

Damian P.

There is hope: Bruce Cockburn--a man with principles who can and will shoot

Unlike a certain Taliban Jack bin Layton. Dan'l Boone and Davy Crockett would be proud (via this post at Army.ca).

Trying to imagine Bruce Cockburn as a soldier is a bit of a stretch.

But the singer, whose songs strongly condemn war and injustice, says enlisting in the military is something he could consider.

“What would I do if the Taliban invaded Canada?” he said in an interview, staring reflectively at the ceiling of his dressing room before performing at Belleville’s Empire Theatre...

Some freedoms are worth defending, regardless of your personal beliefs about war, he said.

“That’s what I’d sign up for,” he said, explaining he’d want to defend the right “to learn and think what you want” as Canadians have now taken as a birthright.

Cockburn said that for the first time in a generation, Canadians are having to re-evaluate their position in the world in the context of the country’s participation in the Afghanistan conflict.

“Now we’re a country at war,” he said. “I don’t think we really know what that means. We are so not ready to defend ourselves against anything.”..

...the western world’s evils don’t justify the actions of terrorists and fanatics like the Taliban, Cockburn said.

“We owe a debt to the people we’ve ripped off all these centuries,” he said, “but that does not mean bowing down” to terrorists.

“I’d sign up. I know how to shoot,” Cockburn said with an easy shrug.

Tough words for an avowed peace-loving folkie...

Holy cow, good grief, and bless you Bruce. "I know how to shoot"--not if certain political parties have their way, thank you very much. Put another way, a proud Canadian with every right to his views--and who recognizes his obligation to defend the society that gives him his rights.

Mark C.

Is Quebec running Canadian foreign policy/Or the "marxo-fascist press"

Even under the Conservatives? Thomas Walkom of the Crvena Zvezda thinks so. Once again one must ask: who is running this "country"?

Another take (fifth down--examine the Rabble in action):

As Jacques Parizeau said, "Canada is not a real country". Parizeau was excoriated in the marxo-fascist press and media...

Mark C.

The problem with Islam today--and yesterday-- and forever?

W.F. Deedes sums it up.

In a little noticed passage of his controversial interview with another newspaper, the Chief of the General Staff, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt spoke of the Islamist threat. "I hope it doesn't make undue progress," he said, "because there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in this country."

That partly explains why we are so far apart. Jack Straw's brush with Islam over veils was only a tiny illustration of the gulf between us.

We have come to regard blasphemy as a symbol of free speech; Islam treats offensive words about the Prophet or the Koran as a serious offence.

It is vain to say: "Well, if they come here, they must conform with British society and its easy ways." Muslims will not do that. Their religion forbids it.

Why do we suppose India had to be partitioned [see end of link]? There was no other way of keeping the peace in that great sub-continent. We cannot do that here, but perhaps we should be thinking in terms of a supreme council on which our principal religions, including Islam, would sit and try to resolve misunderstandings.

What is never going to work is telling followers of Islam here: "You must conform to our ways!"

Mark C.

The True West Strong and Free

This will put the mountain lion amongst les pigeons.

The breakneck pace of growth in Alberta has the province's economy on track to exceed that of Quebec within as few as two years, becoming Canada's second-largest provincial economy.

That's the conclusion of a trio of senior economists, including Statistics Canada's chief of current analysis Philip Cross, who noted yesterday that Alberta's double-digit growth in nominal output, or nominal GDP, is running at a rate four times faster than Quebec's.

Last year, Alberta's economy was $215 billion, while Quebec's was $275 billion. Ontario's was $538 billion.

"It's closing fast on Quebec, frankly," Cross said of Alberta's economy.

"At current rates of growth it should take about three years and it's conceivable in two. That's what double-digit growth will do and growth is substantially accelerating this year."

Cross calculated that at current rates Alberta's economy will grow to $329 million in 2008, while Quebec's would expand to just $309 billion. In 2007, Alberta's GDP would amount to $286 billion and Quebec's $297 billion...

Lucien Bouchard sure is on to something--except he fails to mention Alberta.

Mark C.

Put out to pasture

After 21 years, the last Ford Taurus will roll off the line in Atlanta next week. Autoblog describes how the car that saved the Ford Motor Company became the perfect symbol of the company's demise.

Damian P.

Would somebody please staple Steve's lips?

"Think-tank says McKenna's missile defence position is suspect"--at least the CBC has the good grace to call the Polaris Institute "left-leaning" (see end of link). I'd say it's left-horizontal.

Stephen Staples, a director with the Polaris Institute, said McKenna's erstwhile connection with the American defence industry taints his advice.

The Polaris Institute itself has an an

advisory committee which is mainly composed of social movement activists [my emphasis - MC] working in this country and elsewhere around the world...the Polaris program has been primarily funded [my emphasis - MC] on a project-by-project or a fee-for-service basis through contracts with constituent organizations and partially from grants by charitable foundations.

One wonders if the, likely radical, views of the "social movement activists", "constituent organizations" and "charitable foundations" do not much more significantly "taint" Mr Staples' advice than Mr McKenna's. And why are their names not given? And why do our journalists not do a little digging into who actually supports and funds the institute?

One also wonders who Mr Staples thinks is tainting the advice of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. We can always use some more good old lefty mud-slinging.

Mark C.

Update: A nice dissection by Celestial Junk of "progressive liars" regarding Afstan.

"MacKay: NDP position on Afghanistan 'naive'"

In fact the NDP position is hate-filled, self-serving and ignorant; the Minister of Foreign Affairs is, to say the least, being gentle. The sub-head is more to the point, "Accused of demoralizing troops".

Mark C.

I'm so ronery sorry

The North Korean nukes controversy just gets stranger and stranger:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said Pyongyang doesn't plan to carry out any more nuclear tests and expressed regret about the country's first-ever atomic detonation last week, South Korean media reported Friday.

North Korea, however, kept up its bellicose rhetoric as more than 100,000 people gathered Friday in Pyongyang's central Kim Il Sung square to "hail the success of the historic nuclear test," according to the North's official media.

Kim told Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan that "we have no plans for additional nuclear tests," Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Beijing.

Kim also told the Chinese that "he is sorry about the nuclear test," the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo daily reported, citing a diplomatic source in China. The North Korean leader also raised the possibility that the country would return to arms talks.

"If the U.S. makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, whether it be bilateral talks or six-party talks," Kim was quoted as telling a Chinese envoy, the newspaper reported. The delegation led by Tang met Kim during a day-long visit on Thursday.

The AP story also notes that North Korea's relations with China, it's only real ally, have cooled considerably. Perhaps that brought about the alleged apology?

...China has preferred to use incentives rather than threats with Pyongyang. But the Oct. 9 nuclear test further frayed already damaged ties and strengthened the hand of critics who believe Beijing should take a harder line against a North Korea they say has ignored Chinese interests.

Even before the nuclear tests, with its patience wearing thin, China reduced food aid to the chronically food-short North by two-thirds this year, according to the UN World Food Program. After voting last week for UN sanctions that ban trade in military and luxury goods, China stepped up inspections of the trucks crossing into North Korea.

On Friday, all four major Chinese state-owned banks and British-owned HSBC Corp. said they have stopped financial transfers to the North - a step beyond what the UN sanctions require and a likely blow to a weak economy that relies on China as a link to the world financial system.

Last weekend's UN resolution calls for inspections of cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea to prevent Pyongyang from acquiring or selling weapons of mass destruction or advanced arms like jet fighters.

Chinese leaders aren't ready to fully cut off North Korea, an ally from the Korean War and still a useful buffer state in Northeast Asia. In enforcing UN sanctions, China has balked at inspecting cargo ships, saying it could lead to armed conflict. And Beijing insists it wants Pyongyang to resume negotiations on disarmament, not an end to Kim Jong Il's regime.

More on China and North Korea here.

Damian P.

From Toronto to Mogadishu

Abdullahi Afrah, a leader of the Talibanesque Islamic Courts Union in Somalia, lived in Toronto until nine years ago.

Damian P.

Nice continent you've got there. Shame if something happens to it...

Mad Mahmoud really believes Europe will be cowed by threats like this. Come to think of it, he's probably right:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Europe on Friday it was stirring up hatred in the Middle East by supporting Israel and said it "may get hurt" if anger in the region boils over.

"You should believe that this regime (Israel) cannot last and has no more benefit to you. What benefit have you got in supporting this regime, except the hatred of the nations?" he said in a speech broadcast on state radio.

"We have advised the Europeans that the Americans are far away, but you are the neighbors of the nations in this region. We inform you that the nations are like an ocean that is welling up, and if a storm begins, the dimensions will not stay limited to Palestine, and you may get hurt," he said.

[...]

"Today, with the grace of God, the efforts to establish this fake regime have failed totally," he said in Friday's speech to mark Qods Day (Jerusalem Day) when Iranians are officially encouraged to demonstrate in support of the Palestinians.

Damian P.

Journalists for censorship

The Daily Star, a London tabloid for people who think The Sun is too highbrow, was planning to run a spoof showing what the paper would look like under sharia law. Then Britain's National Union of Journalists stepped in:

A staff revolt at the Daily Star prevented publication of a spoof Islamic version of the paper called the "Daily Fatwa".

Muslim commentators said yesterday that the newspaper's attempt on Monday evening to mock Sharia law could have sparked international protests similar to those that followed publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

The mock-up "Daily Fatwa", which promised a "Page 3 Burkha Babes Special" and competitions to "Burn a Flag and Win a Corsa" and "Win hooks just like Hamza's", was prepared to run as page 6 in Wednesday's edition of the Daily Star, one of the stable of newspapers owned by publisher Richard Desmond.

The page also included a spoof leader column under the headline "Allah is Great" but left blank save for a stamp with the word "Censored".

But shortly before the Star was due to go to press on Tuesday evening, concerned members of the National of Journalists (NUJ) called an emergency meeting in the 9th floor canteen of Desmond's Northern & Shell building beside the River Thames.

After 25 minutes, the NUJ chapel passed a motion saying that the article was "deliberately offensive" to Muslims.

The motion read: "The chapel fears that this editorial content poses a very serious risk of violent and dangerous reprisals from religious fanatics who may take offence at these articles. This may place the staff in great jeopardy. This chapel urges the management to remove the content immediately." [via LGF]

For now, it's about a crude parody. Before too long, it will be about serious news coverage.

Damian P.

They captured, they sold, we bought

The simple truth about the West African slave trade (full text subscriber only).

The principal object of trade was, of course, human beings. Africa was the starting point for the Atlantic trade because it was filled with slaves for sale.

The long, tortuous journey of slave caravans to the African coast, often several hundred miles or more, claimed a far higher death toll than the notorious "middle passage" across the Atlantic. Cape Coast Castle was where Africa's slave trade intersected with Britain's. One war about 200 years ago erupted when the Asante people of the interior attacked the Fante of the coast and some of the European forts in their territory because the Asante wanted to sell their slaves to the British, Americans and Europeans directly, without the Fante taking a cut as middlemen. The PRO records are filled with notes of transactions between the British at the Castle and local African slave dealers and chiefs. But there are no such documents, unfortunately, that let us easily trace the story back into the continent's interior where most of the slaves came from. We know that there were large slave markets far inland throughout West Africa, such as the one at Salaga in northern Ghana, but the written record on them and the societies they served long before Europeans arrived is extremely scanty.

And that is a pity, for in the long run, the legacy of indigenous African slavery and all the deep-seated negative assumptions about human rights that went with it weighs even more heavily on the troubled continent today than the loss of some 11 million people sent from there in chains to the New World, vast crime though that was...

The reality of this trade is well-described in this book.

Of course there were also the Muslim East African slave trade, the North African Muslim enslavement of Europeans, and Ottoman slavery. Who knew?

Mark C.

Mouse Hunt

One of the little buggers is hanging out under my kitchen sink, and so far he's proven too intelligent for me to catch. So I can really, really relate to this.

Damian P.

Hallowe'en hotties

The Gray Lady celebrates the sluts; all the thigh that's fit to picture (via WaPo's "Top 30 Blogged About News Articles"). A professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo also gets quoted; maybe it's all just a huge deviance experiment.

“It’s a night when even a nice girl can dress like a dominatrix and still hold her head up the next morning,” said Linda M. Scott..

Mark C.

Keeping (and losing) the faith

Damian Brooks, in response to Jonathan Kay's disavowal of his support for the Iraq war, explains why he hasn't given up hope yet:

Because to my way of thinking, the linchpin of any reasonable argument against the war is Kay's third supposed failure: it hasn't produced the free and just democracy supporters of the war hoped it would.

That's certainly true, as long as you append the statement with these two words: to date.

From the West's point of view, the Cold War was a failure until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Or, to put it in different terms that might make my point more clearly, the Russian Revolution was a success from 1918 to 1991. So to all who would declare any major geo-political event an unqualified success or failure, I have a question: what's your time frame?

Kay and other "misguided hawks" see Iraq in decline and have given up hope. They're like the investor who buys a stock at $50, sees it drop to $30 and decide to cut their losses and sell. Others see the drop as temporary, and have faith the stock will rebound and yield the profits they'd expected.

To me, the question is not whether Iraq is a success or a failure, it's whether Iraq is more like Apple Computers or Bre X - one eventually pulled out of the dive, and one cratered.

I feel some responsibility for what is happening in Iraq right now, and so should other pundits and bloggers who supported the war and remained insufficiently critical of the way it was carried out. Needless to say, there's nothing more I'd like to see than Iraq pulling out of its death spiral and becoming a stable democracy. But without an absolutely massive overhaul of the American strategy in Iraq - including many more troops, and frankly, that ain't gonna happen - I just don't see the violence ending in the near future.

Damian P.

No fluke

Those nice Old Norse:

Iceland upset conservationists by announcing a resumption of commercial whaling. It plans to take nine fin whales, an endangered species, and 30 minke whales a year.

Mark C.

Afstan: The CBC is economical with the truth

How Canada really got into Afstan instead of Iraq--just to counter the story on CBC's The National, Oct. 18, a real chronology:

The story did not--naturally--investigate sufficiently the angle that Chretien put the troops in Afstan so he would have nothing for Iraq just in case the UN in the end approved military action there. Instead Eddie Goldenberg (I think) was simply allowed to say the government had already decided--he did not say when--not to send troops to Iraq so sending them to Afstan was not a way of avoiding Iraq. That conveniently the fact that the Afstan announcement was made on Feb, 12, 2003.

This was at a time when Chretien was still saying that Canada would follow the UN Security Council's lead on Iraq. For instance, six days after the Afstan announcement, on Feb. 18:

After months of hesitation, Canada finally made it clear on Tuesday that it has no intention of contributing to a U.S.-led attack on Iraq that has not been blessed by the U.N. Security Council [my emphasis - MC].

President Bush has said that if the United Nations backs away from the idea of authorizing force to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, he is prepared to wage war with like-minded allies in what he calls a "coalition of the willing."

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, wary of antagonizing the country's most important military ally and trading partner, has, until now, consistently declined to rule out contributing forces to such a coalition. But on Tuesday he told Parliament that Canada would not join an unsanctioned campaign.

"We have not been asked and we do not intend to participate in a group of the willing," he said in reply to a question asking whether Canada would join Bush's "coalition of willing countries" in an attack on Iraq.

"The policy of the government is very clear. If there has to be military activity in Iraq, we want it to be approved by the U.N. Security Council," he continued...

Now note this (same story):

Chretien and his senior ministers have consistently said that if the United Nations does sanction an assault on Iraq, Canada will take part [my emphasis - MC].

Whether Canada's over-stretched armed forces could contribute much is questionable, since last week Ottawa announced it would send up to 2,000 troops for a year to take part in a U.N. peacekeeping mission based in Kabul.

So it would seen either Chretien and his minister were lying then or Mr Goldenberg is lying now. At all events the motive for the Afstan mission is crystal clear.

More detail:

Chretien on Jan. 15, 2003; the CBC completely ignored this apparent military commitment to a UN-sanctioned mission against Iraq:

If the international community decides that the use of force against Iraq is necessary because it is the only way to bring an end to Iraq's non-compliance, then Canada will do its part [my emphasis - MC]," Mr. Chretien said, adding that "the international community must speak and act through the United Nations Security Council."

From Hansard, Feb. 18, 2003:

Right Hon. Jean Chrétien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we have not been asked and we do not intend to take part in a voluntary group. The government's policy is very clear. If there must be a war in Iraq, we want it to be approved by the Security Council. There may be another Security Council resolution. When the issue has been debated, we will see what we will do. However, our policy is to follow the directives set out by the Security Council.

Mark C.

Protesting Palestinian Propaganda

The Kesher Talkers are handing out flyers to people attending Alan Rickman's play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, in New York City.

This, of course, is stifling dissent and should be condemned in the strongest terms. Instead, they should adopt a more legitimate mode of peaceful protest, like rampaging through the theater, shouting down the actors and taking over the stage, like they do at some of New York's finer institutions of higher learning.

Damian P.

Yourish in '06!

If I lived in Virginia, I'd vote for her.

Damian P.

Green Garth?

Stranger things have happened, though I can't think of any at the moment.

Damian P.

Flashback to 1986

The Washington Post ran this story about North Korea on its August 19, 1986, front page. (via InstaPundit) It's striking (and grimly amusing) to see North Korea described as relatively prosperous, but remember that twenty years ago, the country was still recieving aid and support from the Soviet Union.

When did we stop calling the Dear Leader "Kim Chong Il"?

Damian P.

Kim's master race

Kim Jong-Il is such a cartoonish character, it almost makes you overlook just how horrifying and sick his regime really is:

The North Korean regime’s obsession with racial purity has led to the killing of disabled infants and forced abortions for women suspected of conceiving their babies by Chinese fathers, according to a growing body of testimony from defectors.

The latest description of Kim Jong-il’s policy of state eugenics came from a North Korean doctor, Ri Kwang-chol, who escaped last year and told a forum in Seoul that babies with deformities were killed soon after birth.

“There are no people with physical defects in North Korea,” Ri said. Such babies were put to death by medical staff and buried quickly, he claimed. He denied ever committing the act himself.

Exiles in Seoul said Ri was now keeping a low profile, fearing retaliation by North Korean agents, who have assassinated foes in the South Korean capital before. But his account added to the evidence that the Kim family dictatorship is founded on mystical notions of Korean racial superiority rather than Marxism — a reality that explains its deepening estrangement from China.

Along the 850-mile border, North Korean women refugees have emerged with stories that speak of the regime’s preoccupation with “deviant” sexual relations and its predisposition to violence in dealing with them. (via Harry's Place)

Damian P.

The greatest heroes in Newfoundland history

Loyola Hearn says he and Danny Williams were instrumental in breaking up Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.

Now, let's see them do something about Britney and Kevin.

Damian P.

Now it's Europe's turn

Rural Newfoundland and Labrador has never quite recovered - economically or psychologically - from the closure of the cod fishery in 1992. Now, the same thing seems to be happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

Damian P.

A Janjaweed defector

The Times speaks to a Sudanese man who says he belonged to an Arab militia carrying out ethnic cleansing in Darfur - with the support of the Sudanese government and military.

Damian P.

Bush-lackey warmongers!

These NATO members spent more on defence per capita in 2004 than Canada ($US, Canada just under $300, figures extrapolated from chart):

Italy $320
Belgium $400
Luxembourg (!?!) $500
Netherlands $510
Denmark $560
Norway $850!!!

Read 'em and weep. At least in 1990 we beat Luxembourg. We've been "cheapskates" for quite a long time.

But not according to Steven Staples of the Polaris Institute (see second page at this link)--one of the TV networks' favourite "defence experts". Hurl.

Mark C.

Vehicular gelbe Gefahr delayed

Chinese autos will not invade the US market as soon as expected.

Mark C.

No way, Garth

Garth Turner has been booted from the Conservative caucus for criticizing the party on his blog:

Ontario MP Garth Turner has been suspended from the federal Conservative caucus.

Turner will sit as an Independent in the House of Commons.

Caucus chair Rahim Jaffer said Wednesday that Turner was ousted in part for critical comments made about the party on the blog that he has maintained on his website since the federal election last January.

"There have been different attacks at different times. We've got quite a significant record of them," Jaffer told reporters, adding that the posts included criticism of the prime minister.

"This has been a culmination."

The decision to oust Turner, the member for Halton, came on the recommendation of the party's Ontario caucus. Jaffer said there were concerns regarding Turner over caucus confidentiality.

During my (admittedly brief) perusal of Turner's blog, I couldn't find anything from the last few days which would merit his ouster from caucus. Perhaps he removed the offending post?

Damian P.

NoKo nukes: Indirect Canadian assistance

A former Canadian diplomat outlines the connections (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

Canada was ahead of most countries in promoting the value of nuclear technology in the service of humanity. Despite (or, some would say, because of) its significant involvement in the development of the first nuclear weapons, Canada in the mid-1950s was promoting its unique natural uranium/heavy water technology as the best, and there were eager customers...

...the Canadian government, reflecting the good work done with India on nuclear technology, agreed to provide Pakistan with a power reactor similar to those being built in Rajasthan.

Canada sought to improve the safeguards it had with both India and Pakistan, but that horse was well and truly out of the stable. So when both India and Pakistan refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which entered into force on March 5, 1970, Canada terminated all nuclear co-operation with them except for safety-related material and assistance.

The connections between Pakistan and North Korea on nuclear matters remain murky, but enough is known to suggest that it has been a substantial two-way collaboration (nuclear technology for missile technology) that has lent considerable credibility to the recent claims by North Korea of having exploded a nuclear device. The Canadian assistance to, and collaboration with, Pakistani nuclear scientists and engineers, going back to the 1960s, has been transferred to North Korea and is an integral part of the North Korean nuclear weapons program, no matter how limited or tentative it may prove to be...

See also:

"Iran nuclear update: CANDU connection?"

"Intelligence and nuclear weapons: a poor track record"

"The Canadian contribution to India's nuclear weapons"

Mark C.

Let's just wrap the kids in bubble wrap 'til they're 18 and be done with it

Another elementary school bans tag, touch football, and other contact sports, for fear that it might get sued:

Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

Thank God I was born in 1974 instead of 1994.

Damian P.

Afstan: Time to get things done

Now that the "tipping point" has been reached.

1) NATO ISAF commander:

Military successes over the Taliban in recent months have opened a crucial six-month “window of opportunity” to prove to Afghans in the south that long-promised reconstruction and security can be delivered, NATO's commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday...

2) Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff:

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff, is leading Canada's charge in trying to persuade countries in the 26-nation alliance -- particularly France, Italy, Spain and Germany -- to cough up more soldiers for dangerous duty in Afghanistan's south, or grant permission to the troops they already have stationed in country to serve in the hazardous region...

Gen. Hillier's lobbying flows from the unsuccessful attempts by NATO's defence ministers to find an additional 2,500 troops among their members' countries at a meeting in Slovenia late last month.

Only Poland, a newer NATO member, offered troops -- 1,000 in total -- with no caveats...

Mark C.

Neck and Neck

The Globe and Mail says the Liberals and Conservatives are tied in popularity, thanks mainly to declining Tory support in Quebec.

Damian P.

Trip cancelled

Iggy's much-talked-about trip to Israel will not be going ahead after all:

Michael Ignatieff's plan to travel to Israel to counter the controversy stemming from his assertion that the country committed a war crime in Lebanon has been cancelled by the group organizing the trip, over fears the mission will be overshadowed by leadership politicking.

The Canada-Israel Committee said yesterday that it cancelled the three-day trip for MPs after Liberal leadership candidate Mr. Ignatieff decided to go because they were concerned its purpose of educating parliamentarians would be derailed by a "highly-charged political environment."

The move means the leadership front-runner's gesture to demonstrate his ties to Israel is called off -- but it spares him from a risky plan that worried key supporters, including several MPs who feared it would only rehash the controversy.

"We're going to wait until this round of politics dies down," said CIC chair Marc Gold. "These trips are educational in nature. It's a chance for parliamentarians to be exposed to a range of issues. And that purpose would be compromised, or wouldn't be served, to the extent that it would be focused on who's saying what."

If not for Joe Volpe, who was also scheduled to go on the trip, Ignatieff would be running the most gaffe-prone leadership campaign in recent memory.

Damian P.

The making of a Palestinian myth

Historian Richard Landes says the televised death of Mohammed Al-Durah was a crude hoax:

...First of all, I noted almost immediately that Palestinians and anti-Zionists, insisting that Israel killed the boy on purpose, used Al Durah in a way familiar to medievalists--as a blood libel. This was the first blood libel of the twenty-first century, rendered global by cable and the Internet. Indeed, within a week, crowds the world over shouted "We want Jewish blood!" and "Death to the Jews!". For Europeans in particular, the libelous image came as balm to a troubled soul: "This death erases, annuls that of the little boy in the Warsaw Gherro," intoned Europe1 editorialist Catherine Nay. The Israelis were the new Nazis.

And second, when I saw the raw footage in the summer of 2003--especially when I saw the scene Enderlin had cut, wherein the boy(allegedly shot in the stomach, but holding his hand over his eyes) picks up his elbow and looks around--I realized that this was not a film of a boy dying, but a clumsily staged scene.

On October 31, 2003, at the studios of France2 in Jerusalem in the company of Charles Enderlin and his Israeli cameraman, I saw the raw footage of Al Durah from the only Palestinian cameraman who actually captured the scene on film--footage France2 still refuses to release for public examination. I was floored. The tapes feature a long succession of obviously faked injuries; brutal, hasty evacuation scenes; and people ducking for cover while others stand around. One fellow grabbed his leg in agony, then, upon seeing that no one would come to carry him away, walked away without a limp. It was stunning. That was no cameraman's conspiracy: It was everyone--a public secret about which news consumers had no clue.

But the real shock came when I mentioned this to Enderlin, who said he trusted this cameraman. "They always do that," he said. "It's a cultural style." So why wouldn't they have faked Al Durah? "They're not good enough," he said. A year later, the higher-ups at France2 made the same remark to three French journalists who also noted the pervasive staging: "You know well that it's always like that," they said.

Landes has produced a short documentary making his case. Also see this excellent 2003 article from James Fallows, about anomalies in the case.

Damian P.

"Harper: Canada to develop own missile defence system"

A Cannonball Press report:

OTTAWA (CBP): Prime Minister Stephen Harper stunned the country today by announcing that his government intended to develop and deploy an independent Canadian ballistic missile defence (BMD) system.

"I campaigned on a defence policy of 'Canada First'," said Mr Harper in an interview on the CBC's The National. "This government represents the true north strong and free. How much stronger and freer could we be than when we have our own, indigenous, 'tous azimuths' BMD system?"

The prime minister said that recent nuclear weapon and missile tests in North Korea "had demonstrated a clear and present danger to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic and to our native nations there. I have solemnly pledged to assert our sovereignty in the North. This BMD system is central to that pledge."

"I have noted the recent suggestions by the former Liberal ambassador to Washington, Frank McKenna, and Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, that Canada should simply agree to participate in the American BMD system," Mr Harper continued.

"But that is not good enough. Canada is not a 'one-trick pony' freeloading on our great American neighbour. Canadians want to do, and can do, better than that," he stressed.

The Prime Minister admitted that "It pains me that a Conservative government cancelled the last great Canadian defence dream, the Avro Arrow. Our own BMD system will make up for that short-sighted decision, in spades."

"I see this as Canada's own Manhattan--but not nuclear--Project," Mr Harper stated. He went on: "Given the urgency of the situation, Canada's new government has decided that only the Bombardier company is capable of integrating the project. Bombardier therefore has been assigned the contract to develop and manufacture the system. The aerospace industry of Quebec, and other parts of the country, has never seen a brighter future."

The prime minister concluded by noting that Conrad Black had just said Canada was a "great power". Our own BMD system will wake the world up to that fact," he affirmed.

Leading federal political figures were difficult to locate and had little time to reflect when contacted. They did say:

Michael Ignatieff (Liberal leadership contender): "I will go to Harvard to consult."

Bob Rae (Liberal leadership contender): "Buzz Hargrove has called for a national aerospace strategy, so I will consult with him before giving my considered response."

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton: "Weaponization of space is very problematic. I will consult with Buzz Hargrove before giving my considered response. But quality, high-paying jobs are vital to Canada's future."

BQ leader Gilles Duceppe: "Bombardier? OK."

When asked to comment, Jane Taber of Bell Globemedia went ballistic, sputtering that "This blast from Reagan's 'Star Wars' past and Bush's phallic wet dreams leaves me stone cold."

Mark "Cannonball" C.

Update: "Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority".

"I will not go to Jerusalem"

This politics gig sure is hard to get ahold of: "Ignatieff trip to Middle East cancelled".

True desperation that only the Volpe can know.

At least one other leadership contender, Joe Volpe, had intended to be part of the delegation.

Mark C.

Still proud and fully clothed in Canada

A former Labour minister (not in Cabinet) re-joins the fray against radical political Islam:

...From across the political spectrum there is now common consent that the old multicultural emperor, before whom generation of politicians have made obeisance, is now a pitiful, naked sight...

Late in 2003, I made a routine speech to my constituency. It followed the murder of British and Turkish men and women at our consulate in Istanbul by Islamist terrorists. At the same time, a young South Yorkshire Muslim had gone to Israel and killed himself in a suicide bombing attack.

The two events led me to make a speech in which I said: "It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is the democratic, rule of law, if you like the British or Turkish or American or European way – based on political dialogue and non-violent protests – or it is the way of the terrorists against which the whole democratic world is now uniting." I thought my remarks were banal. After 7/7, everyone used them.

But, three years ago, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips wrote a whole page in the Observer denouncing me. The Foreign Office and Downing Street would not allow me to defend my position. It was an ugly, uncomfortable time, as no one in Whitehall or the media showed any support for efforts to get a debate going on issues that today rightly predominate...

Sounds like Canada.

"Cross my heart and hope to fly".

Whilst a poet from Iraq living in Germany writes of

Arab intellectuals. Many of them are characterised by a carefully masked double standard. In their home countries they present themselves as guardians of traditional Arab values, but when writing in other languages for foreign audiences they express very different, more cosmopolitan views.

The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world; regardless of what the reality may be, a façade of unbroken unity must be maintained...

Khalid al-Maaly, born in as-Samawa, Iraq in 1956, is a writer and publisher living in Cologne. Together with Mona Naggar, he recently issued a "Lexicon of Arab Authors of the 19th and 20th Centuries."

Mark C.

Globe Tax Poll

The homepage of Canada's most widely read newspaper asks the following ridiculous poll question:

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty says Canadians "are taxed too much" and he plans to cut taxes in his next budget. Would you prefer a tax cut or keeping taxes where they are in order to spend more on programs such as health care and education?

___ Cut taxes
___ Keep taxes where they are

Maybe it's too hard to eliminate bias and they should embrace it instead. Bias for the left one day and for the right the next. Next time the question would be asked like this:

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty says Canadians "are taxed too much" and he plans to cut taxes in his next budget. Would you prefer to see tax relief so you can spend your own money as you see fit or would you prefer tax hikes because you believe government knows how to spend your money better than you? Or do you not care because you hardly get taxed anyway?

___ Cut taxes
___ Raise taxes
___ I don't pay taxes--feel free to tax others more!

Someone needs a hug (and the Heimlich maneuver)

Arizona Chokers Cardinals coach after last night's game:

Peter King doubts Green will last the season. I agree. (The one positive for Arizona: Matt Leinart, in only his second game, has six or seven NFL teams wondering why the hell they didn't grab him when they had the chance.)

Damian P.

Update: quote of the day: "The fact that Denny Green doesn't work for the government in some capacity still boggles the mind."

Update II: quote of the day II: "Did the Cardinals ever sell Babe Ruth's contract or something?"

Update III: another classic post-game meltdown here.

More pessimism about Iraq

1) David Frum:

Sunni terrorists targeted Shiite civilian populations with one horrific atrocity after another in hopes of provoking equally atrocious reactions. The counterattack began this summer in Baghdad - now it is spreading northward up the Tigris, as Shiite militias wreak violence on Sunni townspeople in revenge for the massacre of 17 Shiite farmworkers.

Before our eyes, it does look like the partition of Iraq is proceeding, whether the US likes it or no. The US has sufficient power on the ground perhaps to guide events - but not evidently to control them. Which raises the question: should it now not be the US strategic goal to help bring about what seems the inevitable outcome, with as little loss of innocent life as possible?

2) Jonathan Kay, "Confessions of a misguided hawk".

3) And Damian immediately below. I quite agree with his analogy with Yugo. Another one might be the partition of British India in 1947 (religious grounds), followed eventually by the violent partition of Pakistan itself in 1971 (ethnic grounds). The death tolls in the subcontinent were horrendous.

Mark C.

Fraqtured

Sunni radicals are claiming about half of Iraq , including Baghdad, as their own country:

An alliance of Sunni insurgent groups claimed yesterday to be establishing a separate Sunni state in the west of Iraq in the latest demonstration of the growing fragmentation of the country.

The statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of fanatical Sunni groups that includes al-Qa'eda, is the first time a Sunni body has supported the break-up of Iraq.

It said the move was in response to the passing by the Iraqi parliament last week of a federalism law which would permit provinces to join together to form self-ruling regions. That is expected to result in the creation of a semi-autonomous Shia zone in the south, similar to the Kurdish state in the north.

A separate Sunni state was needed to protect itself from such an eventuality, the insurgent group said.

At least 117 people have been killed in sectarian attacks since Friday and at least 57 died yesterday in shootings and bombings. They included the brother of the chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial, shot in front of his wife.

The breakup of Iraq - which was under way even before the ouster of Saddam Hussein, with Iraqi Kurds creating their own country in all but name during the 1990s - is starting to look inevitable.

Everyone compares Iraq to Vietnam or maybe Lebanon, but I think a more accurate (and potentially more disturbing) parallel is the former Yugoslavia: several ethnic groups with a long history of antagonism squished together into a single country; decades under a repressive central government that creates the illusion of stability while divisions get worse and worse; and an orgy of violence and revenge when the dictatorship finally falls.

Damian P.

More "militarization" of the world's longest...

"U.S. begins air patrols on Montana-Alberta border". I wonder what Jumpin' Jack will say in Question Period today.

In any event, Canada is doing its bit to up the firearms ante on our side of the border.

Meanwhile: "U.S. machine-gun fire suspended on Great Lakes"; I presume shipping and pleasure boating can now resume.

Mark C.

Afstan: Globe reporter is either spinning or ignorant

Once again better reporting on the editorial page than by an actual reporter--a letter just sent to the paper:

It's odd that one finds more accurate reporting in the Globe's editorials than in a front-page news story. Doug Saunders writes, in "Blair says bond with Canada is forged in battle" (Oct. 17), that "Other than Canada, Britain is the only country that is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization fighting in the dangerous southern provinces of Afghanistan."

Your editorial the same day, "The true Afghan mission" [full text not officially online], presents the facts rather more accurately when it notes that "It has not escaped Mr. Blair that...Canada's soldiers are playing a leading role in Afghanistan, alongside those of his own country, the United States and the Netherlands..." Indeed substantial Dutch and American forces are also fighting in the south--along with some 600 Romanian soldiers plus smaller contingents from Denmark, Portugal and Estonia.

No wonder Canadians have a difficult time understanding what is happening in Afghanistan when reporting on the situation there is so inaccurate.

Mark C.

Euro-hypocrisy

In public, America's allies are demanding that Guanatamo Bay be closed. In private, they're refusing to take back the Guantanamo prisoners who once lived under their jurisdiction:

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett last week issued the latest European demand to close down the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The existence of the prison is "unacceptable" and fuels Islamic radicalism around the world, she said, echoing a recent chorus of complaints from Europe about U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Behind the scenes, however, the British government has repeatedly blocked efforts to let some prisoners leave Guantanamo and return home.

According to documents made public this month in London, officials there recently rejected a U.S. offer to transfer 10 former British residents from Guantanamo to the United Kingdom, arguing that it would be too expensive to keep them under surveillance. Britain has also staved off a legal challenge by the relatives of some prisoners who sued to require the British government to seek their release.

Other European governments, which have been equally vocal in assailing Guantanamo as a human rights liability, have also balked at accepting prisoner transfers. A Turkish citizen who was born and raised in Germany was finally permitted to return from Guantanamo in August, four years after the German government turned down a U.S. proposal to release him.

In addition, virtually every country in Europe refused to grant asylum to several Guantanamo prisoners from China who were not being sent home because of fears they could face political harassment there. The Balkan nation of Albania agreed to take in five of the Chinese in May, but only after more than 100 other nations rebuffed U.S. pleas to accept them on humanitarian grounds, State Department officials said.

[...]

Ultimately, Bellinger said, U.S. officials expect 60 to 80 prisoners to face trial by military commission. The rest will be released, though many of them might face charges or other restrictions in their home countries.

But those whom the Pentagon wants to free often have nowhere to go. In many cases, their native countries don't want them or have challenged their nationalities. Also slowing the process is a U.S. policy stipulating that prisoners cannot be transferred to nations with a record of human rights violations unless there are written assurances that they won't be mistreated.

The Pentagon has already freed all but a few European citizens from Guantanamo. But U.S. officials have struggled to persuade Britain, Germany and other allies in Europe to accept prisoners who once had legal residency there, or who are effectively stateless.

Damian P.

The deadliest job in Russia

...is journalist, evidently:

The business chief of Russian news agency Itar-Tass, Anatoly Voronin, was killed last night in his apartment in central Moscow, the agency reported.

Death was the result of multiple knife wounds, according to police, Itar-Tass reported. Several theories are being investigated, the agency said.

The body of 55-year-old Voronin was found at his home by his driver, the news agency said. He had worked at the agency for 23 years. His death is the latest in a spate of high-profile killings in Russia in little over a month.

The murder of Anna Politkovskaya inspired Russian-born Cathy Young to mourn the "slow death of freedom" in her home country.

Damian P.

Unlikely critics

The anti-war group Iraq Body Count is skeptical of the Lancet death-toll study. (via Tim Blair)

Damian P.

Good teams find a way to win; bad teams find a way to lose

By halftime last night, I was resigned to Rex Grossman (two picks and two fumbles in the first half!) and the Bears being completely humiliated on national television. You just never know, do you?

Note that the Cardinals would probably be 3-3 right now if not for kicker Neil Rackers, whose collapse is one of the great untold stories of the 2006 season.

Damian P.

Their Votes are There to be Won

Cato Institute vice president David Boaz and America's Future Foundation director David Kirby write a short analysis of the libertarian vote to be officially featured this week. They argue essentially, that despite making up 13% of the voting electorate, it is easy to lose track of them in the liberal vs. conservative battles discussed in the media.

One important observation is that libertarians are hard to find:

Campaign field directors know where to find other voter demographics. You find gun owners at the gun range or through the NRA, churchgoers at church, business owners through the Chamber of Commerce, union members through unions, black voters in churches and neighborhoods, and so on. Where do you find libertarians? There are no libertarian equivalents of the Christian Coalition or MoveOn.org. Field directors in search of libertarians may venture into Libertarian Party conventions—a tiny slice of the libertarians—only to discover a baffling cross section of dissatisfied Americans, and quickly reject the whole enterprise.

Boaz and Kirby conclude:

The best way to attract libertarian voters is not through microtargeting or better polling but through libertarian positions. Candidates who embrace both economic dynamism and social tolerance will be more appealing to libertarian voters. Candidates who offer a program of big-government spending and aggressive social conservatism will tend to drive away libertarians and libertarian-leaning centrists. More specifically, candidates who favor lower taxes, spending restraint, free trade, Social Security private accounts, reproductive choice, and a welcoming attitude toward working women, immigrants, and gays are going to find favor with libertarian voters. Candidates who support protectionism, tax increases, ever-expanding entitlement programs, and intrusions into personal freedoms will lose the libertarian vote.

Jon N

Da Cardinals? Bears!

"Shocking first half." Quoth Mr Leinart, "Are you ready for some football?" Rarely have I ever seen the commentators so engaged; esp. enjoyed Mr Barkley's insights.

I should add I've always had an interest in the Bears since this 73-0 special. Then there was the original Bronko. Rick Casares had a lousy average per rush, esp. compared to Jim Brown.

Hope Damian can stay up!

Mark C.

Update: Last laugh to Damian.

Dead October

Further to these posts, Rick McGinnis ponders the catastrophic ratings failure of October 1970:

...the first few minutes of October 1970 felt like TV Teflon; like too many CBC productions lately, the art direction and costumes seemed slapdash, the camerawork uninspired — something of a miracle in a country that can at least boast a respectable professional standard after so many years as Hollywood’s northern backlot. After a few more minutes, the acting and direction felt rote and colourless, and the first glimmers of an agenda surfaced, at which point the thumb got itchy, and the upper tiers of cable programming beckoned.

In an interview with the Star, actor R. H. Thompson, who plays James Cross, the British diplomat abducted at the same time as Laporte, wondered aloud if the FLQ “(w)ere ... freedom fighters or terrorists? Well, terrorists is a label, which is often used to smear you by people who are in opposition to you. Don’t get me wrong, I have no respect for people who blow up towers or planes and destroy the lives of thousands of innocent people. But this was something different.”

Five or 10 years ago, you could be bleakly curious to revisit October of 1970, if only as an act of dark nostalgia.

Today, there’s something ugly about an attempt to dignify the murder of Pierre Laporte as “somehow different.”

Context is everything, and the ratings for October 1970 would indicate that viewers know an agenda when they see one, and have sent a very clear message to the CBC about the seriousness of spending someone’s money to insult their intelligence, taste, ethics and common sense.

Damian P.

Flashback

Jimmah, in 1994:

CARTER: What the North Koreans were waiting for was some treatment of their exalted leader with respect and a direct communication. I didn't have to argue with him. When I outlined the specific points that were the Clinton administration's position, I presented them to him. And with very little equivocation, he agreed. I think it's all roses now. I've known that there were people in Washington who were sceptical about any direct dealing with the North Koreans. They were already condemned as outlaws. Kim Il-sung was already condemned a criminal.

Question: Are you absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are going to honour this agreement, that while talks are going on that it's not just a matter of buying time on the part of the North Koreans, that they will not secretly pursue the nuclear program they were pushing earlier?

Carter: I'm convinced. But I said this when I got back from North Korea, and people said that I was naive or gullible and so forth. I don't think I was. In my opinion, this was one of those perfect agreements where both sides won. We should not ever avoid direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society who can actually resolve the issue. (via Martin Peretz)

Mind-boggling.

Damian P.

The 300

Not a chick flick.

Update.
Yeah, well THAT theory was slaughtered at the hands of Boudica and Lizzie (and Ellie and Kateland and... counting.)

Ran

Kimland

Korean-American author Suki Kim describes her 2002 visit to Kim Il Sung's capital:

My most vivid impression of Pyongyang was that an entire generation must have been eradicated for such a place to exist. Nothing on their empty, energy-deprived streets indicated that anything prior existed. Every book, piece of artwork and building was either made by the Great Leader or about the Great Leader. Their only official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, was four pages long and consisted almost exclusively of praise for their Great Leader. Their state-controlled TV showed mostly undated footage of the Great Leader. Everywhere I went, music played in the background and the subject of the lyrics was inevitably the Great Leader.

The regime of North Korea has done a most efficient job of wiping out Korea's 5,000-year history, imbued with Buddhism, Shamanism and Confucianism, with one amnesia-inflicting spell called "Juche," its political philosophy of self-reliance. And what seems to make the Great Leader so "great" is that he has replaced their lost memory. For my uncle to have survived there, he either would have had to forget everything he had known, or learned to believe in the Great Leader. Or it is possible that he held on with the hope for the two Koreas to reunite; my grandmother did, until she passed away 25 years after he went missing.

Damian P.

I did the crime, I want to do the time

But some authorities don't seem very interested in the perp's plea, even when he begs to plead guilty. I mean all that jurisdictional hassle and paperwork.

Jonathan Wilson says he robbed three banks in Vancouver. In fact, he's given police a full, videotaped confession.

Now he'd like the courts to let him officially plead guilty to the robberies -- and to five others across Canada. But he's having trouble getting anyone to take him up on the offer.

Last week in a courtroom in Barrie, Ont., -- the city where the 41-year-old of no fixed address was nabbed for the last of the heists -- he apparently broke down and confessed to the entire spree, offering to take his punishment like a man and get on with his life. Sitting in the prisoner's box, he shook his head and insisted aloud: "I want to plead guilty."

Court heard that Wilson has confessed to eight bank jobs across Canada during a one-month spree last year. It also heard that authorities in some places don't believe him, and that others -- in North Bay, Ont., and Saskatchewan -- haven't filled out the forms and releases required to allow him to plead in Barrie's jurisdiction.

In a phone interview last August from his jail in Penatanguishene, Ont., this year, Wilson told reporters: "I just want to get it done and over with. When [the police] picked me up, I told them everything. I did the same thing eight times and I told them about all of them . . . I just didn't want to be running and hiding any more."..

Barrie Crown Attorney Elizabeth Smyth seemed equally disheartened. The Barrie court is prepared to accept his plea for the robbery of a local Royal Bank last October, she said, but several other jurisdictions, including B.C. and Manitoba, have refused to accept his pleas...

B.C. Crown spokesman Stan Lowe said from Victoria that while he could not discuss Wilson's case directly, there are often reasons why local jurisdictions decline an accused's application to enter a guilty plea elsewhere.

Local police may want to interview the suspect personally, Lowe said, believing he may have information they need. Given the time and cost involved in moving suspects across Canada, local Crown attorneys may also wait for completion of one set of proceedings before executing warrants or asking that suspects be flown across Canada for processing...

Good freaking grief!

Mark C.

My mistake

Norman Geras, a left-wing supporter of the invasion of Iraq, now feels pretty much the way I do: that removing Saddam Hussein from power was a laudable and important goal, but had we known the chaos and carnage that would come, we would not have supported it.

...had I been able to foresee, in January and February 2003, that the war would have the results it has actually had in the numbers of Iraqis killed and the numbers now daily dying, with the country (more than three years down the line) on the very threshold of civil war if not already across that threshold, I would not have felt able to support the war and I would not have supported it. Measured, in other words, against the hopes of what it might lead to and the likelihoods as I assessed them, the war has failed. Had I foreseen a failure of this magnitude, I would have withheld my support. Even then, I would not have been able to bring myself to oppose the war. As I have said two or three times before, nothing on earth could have induced me to march or otherwise campaign for a course of action that would have saved the Baathist regime. But I would have stood aside.

Were we therefore wrong to support the war, those of us who did? In terms of what we hoped and what we thought likely, we obviously were - given how things have actually turned out. But on the basis of what could have been reliably foreseen, I think it's harder to say that. Only if the disaster was always foreseeable as the most likely outcome would I be convinced of it. (via Andrew Sullivan)

I part company with Geras when he says, in retrospect, he would have remained silent on the issue. I still cannot bring myself to say it was wrong to remove Saddam from power, but I should have expressed much more skepticism about the likelihood that the war would succeed. I believe American power can and should be used to bring about positive change, but the past three years have taught me a hard lesson about the limits of that power.

As for what to do now, the only thing I know for sure is that the current strategy, whatever it is, is not working. Not when I'm still reading stories like this. If the United States is unable or unwilling to commit enough troops to do the job properly, then pulling out (and maybe leaving some soldiers in Iraqi Kurdistan - the one part of Iraq that really does resemble what I hoped the entire country would look like by 2006) may indeed be better than the status quo.

The main argument against withdrawl? "Defeating" the United States would be a propaganda bonanza for the very people who have reduced Iraq to its present state.

Damian P.

What planet is he on? dept.

The Speaker of the House of Commons today: "It's Question Period, not shouting time." How long has Mr Milliken been at the job?

Mark C.

Stupidest anti-American (and US environmentalist) brouhaha of the year

The US Coast Guard's daring to put some lead in the Lakes.

...the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.

And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use a stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore — and 33 other offshore spots near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth, Minn.; and Gary, Ind. — as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training on their new 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute and send fire more than 4,000 yards.

The notion is so unusual that it prompted United States diplomats to negotiate with Canadian authorities in order to agree that it would not violate a 189-year-old treaty, signed after the War of 1812, limiting arms on the Great Lakes...

All of the proposed firing zones sit at least five nautical miles from shores and from Canadian waters, as well as far from commercial shipping lanes and sensitive marine areas, Lieutenant Barone said. During the training days, when Coast Guard gunners will shoot at floating foam buoys, other boaters will be notified on marine radio frequencies, he said, and every test will include a designated safety observer.

Admiral Crowley said, “I don’t feel there’s a risk to anyone out there.”..

...in 2003, federal authorities sought an understanding with their Canadian counterparts about Rush-Bagot in preparation for mounting machine guns on cutters so that the Coast Guard could “prevent terrorists or others engaged in criminal activities from crossing the United States-Canadian boundary by water,” according to documents from the exchange between the two countries.

In recent days, though, some Canadian mayors, who said they had not heard of the plans until this fall, have objected vehemently. David Miller, the mayor of Toronto, said he worried about practical, safety aspects of the weapons plan and about the environment, but also about the precedent set for the lakes’ more than 94,000 square miles of water.

“Our treaty had always said that the Great Lakes will not be militarized,” Mr. Miller said. “And in effect, this remilitarizes them in the name of a threat from 9/11.”..

Trust Toronto's mayor to seize on such a vital issue.

Toronto's Mayor David Miller also slammed the news of the live-fire drills.

"This is very much the wrong direction, to militarize the border between these two countries," he told The Globe.

"It's symbolically important and practically important that the border remain open and doesn't become militarized."

Miller also drafted a letter to Harper. In it he pointed out that the exercises will cause pollution and "environmental degradation" and restrict shipping and recreational boating.

He also wrote that he found it "disturbing" that the U.S. is moving towards militarizing the lakes, and said the live-ammunition shooting drills are contrary to a treaty signed after the War of 1812, which banned the use of military weapons on the Great Lakes.

Miller chairs a coalition of U.S. and Canadian mayors working to restore and protect the lakes. He said it is "nonsense" to suggest terrorists are using the lakes as an entry-point to the U.S...

But mounting the machine guns must be OK because the Liberal government agreed to it. Didn't Mr Miller bother to look it up? In any case the Rush-Bagot Treaty did not ban weapons (check the immediately preceding link).

Only to be expected dept: Taliban Jack, during the Commons' Question Period, in highest outraged dudgeon demanded the government tell the US to "shut down the firing" in the Great Lakes. If only someone could shut him down.

Mark C.

Update: Comment thread at Army.ca.

Canadian high schoolers give up

We just can't win against the Jihad (via The Western Standard Shotgun Blog).

Mark C.

Darfur: Arab/Muslim force?

I missed this (as did most of the media):

Arab countries have launched a new effort to push Sudan toward a compromise over U.N. peacekeepers for Darfur, offering to dispatch a force of Arab and Muslim troops to the troubled region, diplomats said Sunday.

The Arab League diplomats said Sudan's president rejected the initial proposal -- as he has all suggestions for a U.N.-affiliated contingent, regardless of the makeup -- but promised to suggest an alternative soon, in a sign that the Arab effort might show more promise than other attempts to stop the humanitarian crisis...

The two sides are still far apart, however. And it was unclear how much leverage the Arab countries -- close neighbors and supporters of Sudan's Arab-dominated government -- have or how strongly they intended to press the proposal...

A WaPo editorial points out a serious problem with this seemingly-attractive idea:

...the fact is that the United Nations is not going to fight its way into Darfur [got that right - MC). Depending on the details of its design, an Arab force could be an acceptable alternative.

The details matter because an Arab deployment would face credibility problems: It would be identified with Sudan's Arab-led government, which has equipped and supported Darfur's genocidal militia. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of the African Union force proves that peacekeeping in Darfur is no easy task: The Arabs would need to arrive with more troops and better equipment. But if Arab governments did deploy a robust force, they might succeed in quelling militia violence. That would solve the credibility problem...

Meanwhile, the US is trying "quiet diplomacy". As the globe turns.

Mark C.

Williams vs. Harper

Danny Williams met with Stephen Harper this weekend, but didn't come away reassured about the Prime Minister's position on resource revenues:

Differences between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams have become more stark than ever, following a weekend meeting of provincial Tories.

Harper came to Gander for the annual provincial Progressive Conservative convention to address delegates and mend fences with Williams, with whom he has had a sometimes raucous relationship.

After meeting Harper, Williams told delegates the two men are still at odds because the prime minister would not back up a written promise on equalization that he had made in January during the federal election campaign.

"That's when it hit the fan, believe you me," Williams told delegates to the Progressive Conservative convention at a banquet, as he recounted a conversation he had with Harper.

"This prime minister is telling me when he comes into my province, into our town, to our convention, that he hasn't made his mind up yet," Williams told delegates, attending a meeting in Gander.

"Well, he better make his mind up, I can tell you right now."

In his Jan. 4 letter, written in response to a list of issues that Williams put before each of the federal leaders, Harper vowed to keep non-renewable energy resources out of the equalization formula.

"The Conservative government will ensure that no province is adversely affected from changes to the equalization formula," Harper wrote.

Williams said he was stunned that Harper did not repeat his written pledge, and warned of electoral payback if the position does not change.

If Harper doesn't keep his promise on equalization, it will kneecap the Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador - and probably the rest of Atlantic Canada - the way the National Energy Program wrecked the Liberals in the West. In the short term, anyway - in the long term, Newfoundlanders may consider it the last straw that leads us to give up on Confederation altogether.

Damian P.

Update: Loyola Hearn, Newfoundland's representative in the federal cabinet, says we shouldn't condemn Harper to the depths of hell just yet. He's right, but - and I say this as a strong Harper supporter, up to this point - we do have to make it clear that we will not tolerate the Prime Minister breaking his promise.

Converts are Zealots

Converts to Islam have been involved in virtually every major Al Qaeda-inspired cell uncovered in Europe since the September 2001 attacks on the U.S.... a leaked report from Britain's MI5 service this summer raised concerns that violent Islamists are actively recruiting converts, counting on their local knowledge or appearance — particularly in the case of white converts — to better avoid detection.

"The people going to Al Qaeda today, a good part of them would have gone to the extreme left 30 years ago," said Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Harvard sociologist Marc Sageman, author of the acclaimed book, Understanding Terror Networks, disputes Roy's theory of "protest conversions." "If you look at the history of converts, they usually converted because their friends became Muslims, and when the group radicalized they radicalized along with the group," said Sageman, who studied the profile of 172 known terrorists.

Toronto Star

Michael K

Victory-like substance discovered at Ford Field

The lowly Lions finally won a football game. So did Tennessee and Tampa Bay, the latter led by a sixth-round draft pick. (What a strange day, in which Joey Harrington nearly led the Dolphins to an amazing fourth-quarter comeback victory.)

Only the '76 Bucs Oakland Raiders remain winless - and as I write this, they're losing 13-0 to Denver. My money says Chris Simms will be in Oakland next year.

Damian P.

Another Chavez

According to The Independent, anti-American Chavista Rafael Correa is the front-runner in Ecuador's Presidential election, though he'll have to go to a run-off vote against another populist candidate:

A populist banana tycoon and a left-wing ally of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez were last night heading for a run-off vote after neither won a clear victory in Ecuador's presidential poll.

Rafael Correa a former finance minister who resigned from the government after speaking out against a US-backed trade agreement, had seen support surge through the campaign as he addressed mass rallies wielding a leather belt and promising to "give the lash" to Ecuador's elite.

After years of government collapses Mr Correa had vowed to rewrite the constitution, curb political parties, suspend the free trade deal with Washington and refuse to renew an accord on a US military base used to fight drugs.

But Mr Correa's opponent, the billionaire banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, gained ground in yesterday's voting, with exit polls last night suggesting that neither side had won a clear victory. A Cedatos Gallup poll showed Mr Noboa with 27.2 per cent of the votes and Mr Correa with 25.4 per cent after first round voting, while another poll showed Mr Noboa with 28.5 per cent of the votes and Mr Correa with 26.5 per cent.

[...]

Mr Correa was quick to see the appeal of anti-Bush rhetoric with voters in Ecuador and noisily trumpeted his support for Mr Chavez's stand at the UN General Assembly. "Calling Bush the Devil is offending the Devil ... The Devil is evil but the Devil is intelligent," Mr Correa said.

Other media outlets put Noboa in front. Either way, it's thisclose.

Damian P.

WW II: Who were in the Free French Army that helped defeat the Nazis?

More than half were colonials, mostly Muslim North Africans. History is truly odd.

The movie concentrates on some of the 300,000 soldiers from France's former African colonies who made up more than half the 550,000 troops in its army fighting the Germans...

"Days of Glory" in the English release.

Mark C.

Do the Star's headline writers read the stories?

Get me rewrite: "One arrested at protest".

CALEDONIA, Ont. — A standoff between police and hundreds of people protesting an aboriginal occupation has come to an end with two arrests...

Mark C.

Freddy Fender, R.I.P.

The Tex-Mex musical legend (born Baldemar Huerta, he adopted his stage name from the guitar manufacturer) has passed away at age 69.

Damian P.

Nukes will just keep proliferating

It's wishful thinking to believe much can be done.

...what's done is done [NoKo "bomb"], and though we may protest and bluster, there is very little the U.S. can do to stop it from proceeding. Rather than making a show of our weakness, we would do well to calm down. After all, this was not unexpected; the fact is, the spread of nuclear weapons is, and always has been, inevitable...

...the world has become a more fractured and complicated place, no longer bound by the old alliances, where independent nuclear arsenals have greater meaning than before. Paradoxically, the desire for nuclear weapons is spreading in inverse relation to the lowered risk of an all-out global nuclear war. This is a trend that began even before the fall of the Soviet Union, but it is accelerating in a world where countries must turn to themselves for protection and where the U.S., especially after the invasion of Iraq, is seen as an aggressor and a threat. For these reasons and others, new nuclear players are emerging to challenge the rules of the game...

Earlier this year in Moscow, a Russian nuclear official put it this way to me: "Nuclear weapons technology has become a useful tool, especially for the weak. It allows them to satisfy their ambitions without much expense. If they want to intimidate others, to be respected by others, this is now the easiest way to do it." Once a country decides to become a nuclear weapons power, he said, it will do so regardless of international sanctions or incentives...

In rawalpindi, an official close to the nuclear-armed Musharraf regime said to me: "The best way to fight proliferation is to pursue global disarmament. Fine, great, sure — if you expect that to happen. But you cannot have a world order in which you have five or eight nuclear weapons states on the one hand, and the rest of the international community on the other. There are many places like Pakistan, poor countries which have legitimate security concerns — every bit as legitimate as yours. And yet you ask them to address those concerns without nuclear weapons, while you have nuclear weapons, and you have everything else? It is not a question of what is fair, or right or wrong. It is simply not going to work."..

Has North Korea joined the ranks of nuclear powers? If so, so be it. There will be other nuclear newcomers in the decades to come. Iran will be next, but it will not be the last. Turkey, Syria and Saudi Arabia are believed to be interested and could easily proceed, depending on regional events. So could Algeria. So could Brazil and Venezuela. The future is unknowable, but there is no limit to where these weapons could spread...

Ultimately...it is important to recognize that the spread of nuclear weapons is a condition over which we do not have control and for which there is no solution. It does no good to bemoan the folly of it all or to belabor the fact that we are the ones who ushered in the Nuclear Age. The world is an unsafe place, and we have no choice but to live in it. Pretending otherwise, or imagining that we can impose order when we lack the power to do so, is the surest recipe for self-destruction and disaster.

One big reason proliferation has continued:

Last week may well be remembered as the beginning of the end for the United Nations Security Council. The institution that has been so central to the post-1945 international order was already tottering under the weight of its own recent failures. But North Korea's claim to have conducted a successful nuclear test last Monday appears to have been the final straw...

...By yesterday, the original US proposal had been redrafted to the point of being an Insecurity Council Irresolution.

Sound familiar? It should. We have seen exactly the same pattern of behaviour this year over Iran's thinly-veiled nuclear arms programme. The United States, Britain and France have been pressing for action in response to Teheran's refusal to stop enriching uranium. China and Russia have qualified every phrase, watered down every demand, dragged every foot...

By breaking and entering his way into the club of nuclear powers, Kim Jong Il has proved beyond doubt that there really is nothing the permanent members can agree on. Unless the two club bores – China and Russia – can be expelled or brought to their senses, the Security Council Chamber will soon be a room without a purpose too.

By the way, the UNSC resolution "...will create a U.N. committee to monitor the sanctions' effectiveness..." Reminds me of this committee.

Mark C.

Name that hair-metal band

I only got 6 out of 16. Not sure if I should be ashamed or relieved.

Damian P.

No Interest in FLQ or War Measures

CBC notched one of its lowest ratings in its history with the premiere of the new miniseries October 1970 Thursday night. The story of the FLQ crisis and kidnapping of James Cross attracted a pitiable 110,000 viewers and CBC veterans can not remember a figure so low for the debut of a new show. Toronto Star

When I look back I'm totally amazed that these guys could feel so "oppressed" in Quebec that they thought it was worth killing a man. And this guy's political activities must surely be tainted by insanity.

According to a spokesman for the company, the bombings resulted in customers being afraid to go to Second Cup coffee shops, resulting in a substantial loss of business. The company changed their signs to Les cafés Second Cup. -- Wikipedia

Mathieu won. But, what if separatists had organized a massive campaign of support for Second Cup to demonstrate that no matter how strongly you support French-Canadian culture, this kind of behaviour is contemptible.

Michael K

Damian adds: I have a post about this here.

Another day, another Volpe scandal

Surely, you thought, nothing else can go wrong for Joe Volpe's Liberal leadership campaign. Well, you thought wrong:

Joe Volpe has been accused of using taxpayer money to fund his campaign for the Liberal leadership. The allegation comes after he was fined by the party for an earlier breach.

The Career Foundation, a non-profit charity funded by Ottawa, rounded up clients to work for the Eglinton-Lawrence MP prior to the recent "Super Weekend" delegate vote. In early October, it issued cheques totalling $2,687.50 to seven clients.

Volpe spokesperson Corey Hobbs says the campaign always intended to pay: "There was a clear and legal plan in place that we would be paying these people for their services ... There is an invoice that is being processed right now."

Three managers at the charity, in Volpe's riding and formerly within his purview as a federal cabinet minister, formally complained to executive director Colin Morrison about the assignment.

[...]

Evans argues Volpe should have been aware of problems in hiring from a federally funded, non-profit agency. "Volpe has to know this was wrong. He was the Minister of Service Canada. He knows non-profits can't get involved in politics like this. He can hardly plead ignorance."

Evans, a career counsellor since 1998, once worked in municipal, provincial and federal political offices, including for Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy, then an MPP. She also worked for St. Paul's MP Carolyn Bennett, who dropped out of the race last month to support Bob Rae, former NDP premier of Ontario. She has one month remaining on a six-month probationary period at the foundation.

Good news for Kim Campbell, Stockwell Day and John Turner: no longer can either of them can be accused of running the most hilariously incompetent political campaign in Canadian history.

Damian P.

46 Sunni Muslims Murdered: No marches planned

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Suspected Shiite militiamen killed at least 46 Sunni Arabs in a weekend rampage of revenge killing in a city north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said Sunday, raising the toll in the latest sectarian bloodletting there to 63.

Toronto Star

Michael K

More than one Tiger

I'm conflicted between Detroit and the Metropolitans. But then a Detroit-St. Louis World Series would be a heartland special. What's a compassionate conservative to do?

Mark C.

Update: George Will thinks today is baseball's "golden age": e.g. seven different World Series winners in seven straight years.

"I like Mike"

Amazing, is it not, that Mickey I. is adopting the politics of an American presidential hopeful? The Liberal leadership frontrunner has said, in effect, "I will go to Jerusalem" (see end of link) in an effort to end the internal war within the Liberal peninsula.

His great-grandfather went to Peking; he can go to Jerusalem. But he may need a horse to confer with the party's past greats.

Mark C.

Hirsi Ali's School Days

At a Muslim girls' high school in Nairobi, Hirsi Ali, whose religious devotions had been casual, came increasingly under the sway of a Shia teacher. By age 16, she was dressing in full hijab, praying five times a day and learning to parrot the teacher's views, she says.

"Though I knew nothing about them, I learned to hate Jews day in, day out. We were told that if they could be eliminated all our problems would be solved." In 1989, when Iran issued a fatwa on novelist Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, the devout Hirsi Ali went along with it: "Yes, I wished for his death."

Lynda Hurst, Toronto Star. The Nation has a detailed critique of Ali.

Michael K

The UK Chief of the General Staff should go

I reluctantly agree with the conclusion of this column, that General Dannatt stepped beyond the proper bounds of the military's speaking publicly on government policy. It's strange (or is it?) that his comments at the same time on Christian values seem to have received very little coverage or comment.

Mark C.

Update: The Editor of the conservative Spectator agrees the General went too far:

I have no doubt that Sir Richard is a man of great valour, experience and piety, utterly devoted to his country and his troops. But his intervention was still outrageous. Whether or not his view are correct, or other soldiers agree with him, is utterly irrelevant. In saying what he did, he breached a fundamental constitutional principle that has served this country well since the Glorious Revolution...

...Sir Richard was scarcely declaring war. Yet in so flagrantly challenging this country's well established strategy in Iraq, he was also flagrantly challenging the clear division of responsibility between politicians and soldiers in our system. He sowed doubt as to where the authority of the Crown truly lies. You may agree with everything or most of what he said about Iraq, but it is always dangerous to change a time-honoured constitutional convention because it is expedient...

Home and native land?

Somali occupants of the "World's Finest Hotel" are on both sides in the civil war there. But one side is much scarier than the other, especially in terms of possible ramifications within Canada.

A number of young Somali-Canadians have returned to their homeland and joined a hardline Islamic militia that some call Africa's Taliban, sources have told the National Post.

The Shabbab, a Somali youth militia whose leader is believed to have been trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, includes several Canadians in its ranks, the sources said.

Somali-Canadians are also said to be serving in other militias, as well as in senior positions in Somalia's interim government and its opponent, the Islamic Courts Union...

Some analysts believe Somalia is on the verge of becoming the next big destination for young extremist Muslims who want to participate in armed jihad.

The participation of a significant number of Canadians in the conflict has raised alarms in Ottawa, which fears Somali militia members will escalate to terrorism or return to Canada and radicalize a new wave of extremists...

Mark C.

Afstan: Summary of situation/What US forces outside ISAF will be doing

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of US forces outside ISAF, gives an interview.

Last week, Eikenberry transferred control of the 12,000 U.S. troops in the eastern and southeastern portions of the country over to NATO commander British Gen. David Richards [who seems rather less upbeat than his American colleague]. It was the final transfer of command as NATO assumed full control of military operations in the country...

"This is a challenging military mission for NATO -- the most challenging operation in its history," Eikenberry said. "But I believe the NATO alliance will be successful in Afghanistan.

"We're fighting an enemy that cannot defeat us -- NATO, the United States and Afghanistan -- militarily. Militarily our forces dominate wherever we go."..

"It's not that the enemy anywhere is that strong," Eikenberry said. "It's that the government and security forces are still weak. There hasn't been anywhere in Afghanistan where there's been a strong government presence that the enemy has pushed it away...

That, he continued, is why there has been a "steady shifting of (the enemy's) tactics" to suicide bombers and improvised explosive devices in attacks on schools, children, secular institutions and moderate religious leaders...

...Eikenberry stressed...there is still a long way to go in rebuilding the country. New roads and schools must continue to be built. New economic structures must continue to be put in place. Judicial systems must be created. And social services must begin to be offered to the people.

"More has to be done by the international community. More has to be placed into reconstruction efforts, but I believe if the effort is made, this campaign is very winnable."

And those are efforts that Eikenberry will continue to oversee as the commander of nearly 12,000 U.S. troops outside the NATO umbrella.

Part of that 12,000 will be charged with training Afghan military and police forces [crucial - MC] and doing reconstruction work, as well as providing administrative, logistical and air support.

The rest of that force will focus on counter-terrorism -- attacking the al-Qaida and international terrorist networks still trying operate within Afghanistan. They also will continue to operate U.S. prisons and interrogation centers...

Really Bold Moves

Autoblog examines some of Ford's recent concept cars, and determines what its mediocre lineup could have looked like today.

It's hard to narrow it down to just one mistake, but I think the company's biggest error in recent years has been its decision not to sell the second-generation Focus in North America. For the first time in recent memory, Ford had a genuinely competitive small car (once the first-year bugs were worked out, anyway) and they blew it - just when gas was getting more expensive, to boot. (Ford's decision seems even more ridiculous when you note that the acclaimed Mazda3 is based on the new Focus.)

Damian P.

Downey Syndrome

If The Western Star must publish a regular column from pro wrestling columnist turned geopolitical analyst Michael Downey, can't they at least run it on a day other than Saturday? Nothing can wreck a perfectly good Saturday morning like reading this:

...I'm looking at the underside of a building. Underneath the Breaking News headline is a caption indicating something about NORAD dispatching aircraft in American airspace.

My first instinct is buried beneath subdued excitement. Have terrorists struck the United States? I admit, I felt tickled. Since it's clear that US paranoia over invisible terrorists and threats fabricated from the soiled material that is white trash ignorance aren't going to disperse anytime soon, then I may find an ounce of comfort if some of the US's fears are substantiated.

The comfort I may recieve could possibly be reduced to an irresponsible grin that my neighbour isn't a complete paranoid moron - people do in fact hate him - enough that they occasionally throw bags of burning waste onto his doorstep. I'll grin a little, root for the bad guy, and feel no sympathy as I go back to bed made with the clean sheets of a clean conscience.

I expect Downey's column encouraging everyone to watch Loose Change to run some time around mid-November. And by next spring, he'll be ending every column with the phrase, "Allahu Akbar."

Damian P.

Paul Magee, R.I.P.

The VOCM radio host has succumbed to cancer.

Damian P.

Yeah, that explains it

Tom Walkom explains why South Korea is so much better off than North Korea:

At war's end, both Koreas found recovery difficult. By the mid-'80s, it had become clear that the South's formula (military-backed dictatorship plus Western money) was proving more effective than the North's (military-backed dictatorship plus no Western money).

Wanker.

Damian P.

Iggy: Peace Trip to Jerusalem

Ignatieff will join the Canada-Israel Committee's multi-party trip to the middle-east in November, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

He said that:
1. This summer's conflict was "provoked by Hezbollah and its backers to lure Israel into a wider war"
2. War crimes were committed by both sides.
3. There are no military options left in the Middle East
4. Harper's claim that the Liberals are anti-Israel is a disgrace.

Michael K

A worthy winner

Bangladeshi economist Mohammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, an institution he founded to make small, low-interest loans to would-be entrepreneurs in his desperately poor country, have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

I haven't been too happy with some recent winners, but I can't argue with this one.

Damian P.

Lancet links

Crooked Timber and Jane Galt have several interesting posts on the controversial and disturbing report about the death toll in Iraq. So do Bruce Rolston and the Washington Post's William Arkin.

Damian P.

Canadian diversity in action

You just can't please enough of our multicultural mosaic enough of the time.

The wife of prominent Liberal MP Irwin Cotler has quit the party in a fury over leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff's assertion that Israel committed war crimes.

In a letter to the editor in Friday's National Post, Ariela Cotler says she decided to give up her membership because of Ignatieff's accusation that last summer's bombing of a Lebanese village was a "war crime."

She accuses Ignatieff of lacking moral integrity and of sacrificing the truth for political gain in the leadership race.

Cotler, a former justice minister and prominent member of Montreal's Jewish community, is supporting former Ontario NDP premier Bob Rae's bid to lead the federal Liberals.

Mark C.

If the Star thinks he's the wrong man for the job

He's probably the right one to head the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). I guess it depends on what you want the police actually to do. Incredible as it may seem, Dalton McGuinty looks good on this.

At this difficult time in their history, Ontario's provincial police need the best possible leader, someone forward-looking, open to fresh ideas and willing to hear legitimate criticism without lashing out.

They need a dynamic person who rejects the authoritarian style of traditional policing and is ready to move ahead into the 21st century.

For those reasons, it is most perplexing why Premier Dalton McGuinty appointed former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino yesterday as the new commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Fantino has been Ontario's Commissioner of Emergency Management since March 2005, after his contract as chief was not renewed by the Toronto Police Services Board.

The decision not to renew Fantino's contract was controversial because he had many supporters inside and outside of government circles. But there also was a widespread sense that Fantino had grown out of step with the increasingly diverse society that he had sworn to protect...

Fantino...had a tendency to inflate public fear of crime, at one point warning of "gun-crazed gangsters" running rampant, even as statistics showed the crime rate falling [along with the bodies of those murdered - MC]...

Effective, progressive [my emphasis - MC] OPP leadership is vital, especially now.

The OPP patrols vast areas of this province, including districts where the population is largely poor and aboriginal. That is a huge challenge.

And the force is under much pressure over its handling of the ongoing aboriginal standoff in Caledonia [the pressure is over the OPP's failure to enforce the law, under pressure from the provincial government; how will Dalton handle that now? - MC].

...it is a troubling choice.

It is, in fact, the way Caledonia (more here) has been handled that has damaged members' morale. Odd the Star did not point that out.

Mark C.

Taliban Jack bin Layton really hates Bush, loves dead Canadian soldiers

Jack Granatstein sums things up superbly (first paragraph out of sequence for effect):

Why doesn't Jack Layton get the message? The reason is clear: He believes that he can parlay Canadian casualties in Kandahar and strident anti-Americanism in Canada into votes in the next election. He might be right, but Canadians should understand the bald-faced cynicism that underlies his policy...

The New Democratic Party is not one with much military expertise in its ranks. Layton himself has none; nor does Alexa McDonough, the former party leader. Only Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer (who spoke in opposition to Layton's Afghan policy at the convention) and Winnipeg MP Bill Blaikie speak with any authority on military matters.

And yet, the NDP is scoring points with its Afghanistan position, especially as the casualties in Canada's Kandahar operation continue their steady rise. Why?

The NDP always harks back to Canada's proud tradition of United Nations peacekeeping. Canadians love peacekeeping, which they associate with doing good, a military on the cheap, no casualties and a role that differentiates them from their superpower neighbour. For a half-century, we like to imagine, Canadians kept the peace in Cyprus, the Middle East, the Congo, and dozens of other troubled countries with their blue berets and white-painted vehicles, while the United States makes war everywhere.

Yet this popular belief bears scant connection with either history or the reality of modern UN operations. Unfortunately, neither the NDP nor the public seems to care.

In fact, the NDP would far prefer Canada's troops be deployed to Darfur in Sudan than to Kandahar. There, the UN would be in charge, or so Layton appears to believe.

There are, of course, a few practical problems with a Darfur operation. The Khartoum government refuses entry to UN troops and threatens a jihad against them if they dare to come. Moreover, Canada has no way to get troops to Darfur (even if it had the troops to send), no way to support them logistically in a barren area of the world, and no way to get them out in an emergency. Finally, the casualties in Darfur might be far higher than in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, because the U.S. is (relatively) uninvolved and because women and children are being brutalized, congo is the NDP's preferred operation.

The Afghanistan operation by contrast is portrayed as the work of a coalition of the willing -- the U.S., NATO, and a few other American satraps such as Australia. To Layton, Kandahar is just another part of George W. Bush's Great War on Terror. "It's time," he said on Sept. 26, "for a new approach. One that puts reconstruction, development and aid ahead of counter-insurgency."

What Layton refuses to acknowledge is that the Afghan operation has been sanctioned by repeated UN resolutions, and is yet another military operation sub-contracted by the UN to those who are willing to pick up the burden.

The UN's undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, says bluntly that traditional UN peacekeepers can't do the job in Afghanistan where robust forces are needed to take on the Taliban insurgents. The world organization wants its political and humanitarian efforts -- and, not least, its efforts to assist women and children -- in Afghanistan to succeed, and Guehenno understands that without military action, the development and stabilization efforts could be stymied. The undersecretary-general last week even congratulated Canada for sending tanks to Kandahar...

Not one Canadian in a hundred, and certainly not Layton and friends, understands that the UN considers the troops fighting in Afghanistan to be carrying out a Security Council mandate. The Canadian government would be wise to make this clear to the public.

That won't stop the NDP, of course. While Jack Layton's every instinct is to say that the United Nations is always good, his true default position is that the United States is forever evil. (Or, in Orwellian terms, the New Democrats' equivalent to "four legs good, two legs bad" is "UN good, U.S. evil.") Anti-Americanism sells well in Canada today, and Bush is arguably the president of the last hundred years most despised by Canadians. So long as Stephen Harper insists on operating from what Layton calls "President George W. Bush's tired playbook," he will be painted as sharing a bed with the unpopular U.S. president. Canadians unhappy with the softwood lumber deal, with tightening border controls, and the Arar case are quick to accept Layton's anti-Americanism at face value...

- J.L. Granatstein writes on behalf of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century...

Size matters (auto-wise)

"When it comes to crunch, bigger really is better, a crash study proves".

DRIVERS of small and medium-sized cars are 50 times more likely to be killed in collisions with another car than drivers of 4x4s or people-carriers, according to the Department for Transport.

The safest cars, from the driver’s perspective, are the Land Rover Defender, Mercedes ML class, Toyota Landcruiser and Isuzu Trooper [I guess there aren't enough Hummers in the UK to be statistically relevant - MC]...

The cars with the worst record for driver deaths and serious injuries are the original Mini, the Fiat Panda, the pre-1993 Nissan Micra, Daewoo Matiz and Suzuki Swift... [via Norman's Spectator]

While Buzz Hargrove can be relied upon for TODAY'S IDIOCY:

Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove pointed to another culprit for the auto trade deficit.

"The biggest issue is the lack of being able to ship into the Asian markets," Mr. Hargrove said.

People in South Korea or Japan would be happy to buy a Dodge Caliber or an Oshawa, Ont.-made Chevrolet Impala if they had the chance, he said, but imports of those vehicles are restricted by tariff and non-tariff barriers...

I wonder why Buzz left out these obvious candidates for the East Asian market?

Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan (Windsor) and the Chrysler 300, Chrysler 300 Touring, Dodge Magnum and Dodge Charger (Brampton)..

Mark C.

Return of the Religious Epic

[originally posted to The VHS Chronicles]

Movies based on Bible stories were once a staple of Hollywood - in no small part because filmmakers could get away with racy scenes that would never get past the censors in a secular film, ironically enough. Now, with the remarkable growth of an evangelical pop culture, the major studios are making explicitly religious films once again:

Cecil B. DeMille would be proud. After all, this is the legendary showman who once said, "Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture." This week, 20th Century Fox launched a new "faith-based division," called FoxFaith. It's first film, "One Night with the King," is pure DeMille: Love! Adventure! Palace intrigue! And, by the way, also Holy Writ. The film, opening Friday, is based on a novel about Queen Esther, who saves the Jews of Persia and marries King Xerxes.

This may be just another step in Hollywood's new dance with the "faith-based" community, but given that Fox executives estimate that audience at more than 80 million, the rest of Tinseltown is paying close attention.

[...]

The runaway success of Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" was Hollywood's wake-up call in 2004 about the power of this genre, when it raked in some $600 million at the box office worldwide. While Fox turned down the opportunity to distribute the film in theaters, its home entertainment division handled the DVD sales of more than 15 million copies.

All this has demonstrated to the entertainment industry that there is a large, underserved number of potential films with an unabashedly religious point of view.

"This is not just a fad," says Matthew Crouch, producer of "One Night with the King." "This is a long-term trend that is here to stay."

Fox may be the only studio with a major, in-house faith-based brand, but others are trying to tap the same market. Walt Disney reached out to churches by offering special screenings in its recent release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," the first in a series of "Narnia" films from Christian writer C.S. Lewis.

New Line Cinema plans to release "The Nativity Story," starring Keisha Castle-Hughes as the Virgin Mary, this December. Sony Pictures recently partnered with Peter Lalonde, the Christian filmmaker behind the "Left Behind" films, to bring out the third installment, "Left Behind III: the World at War." Warner Brothers has a multipicture deal with Legendary Pictures, which hopes to bring John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost" to the screen.

One notable difference: whereas movies like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur were extremely expensive for their time, FoxFaith releases will be modestly budgeted at around $5 million each. (That's even lower than the direct-to-DVD Left Behind films, which have budgets in the $15-20 million range.)

The FoxFaith website also lists several secular 20th Century Fox releases, like Because of Winn-Dixie, Anastasia and Garfield, suggesting that Fox views its new division as a channel for "family-friendly" pictures, even if they aren't explicitly religious. Either that, or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York had a religious subtext I failed to notice.

Damian P.

A step toward partition

The Iraqi parliament has passed a law which, according to The Daily Telegraph, could lead to the country being split up altogether:

Iraqi MPs have passed a law enabling the country to be split into semi-autonomous regions, despite warnings that it could mean the end of Iraq as a sovereign state.

The federalism Bill, introduced last month by a Shia party, passed the 275-member parliament by 141 to 0. Its opponents had boycotted the vote in a failed attempt to prevent enough MPs being present to reach the required 50 per cent quorum.

The new law comes at a time when reports in the United States say that a commission led by a leading US elder statesman is preparing to tell President George W Bush to abandon his drive to establish a democratic state across Iraq.

According to a leaked report published yesterday, the Iraq Study Group — headed by James Baker, a former secretary of state, and including senior figures from both main parties — is boiling down America's choices in Iraq either to creating a fortress Baghdad or gradually withdrawing troops and focusing on containing terrorist fall-out from a civil war.

[...]

However, the passage in Iraq of the new federalism law indicates that events may be moving too swiftly for new initiatives from Washington to dictate the country's future course. Provinces will be permitted to band together to form self-ruling regions if a third of provincial legislators request it and the move is backed by local referendums.
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As a result, a Shia state is likely to emerge in the south, similar to the autonomous region the Kurds have established in the north. It will be able to levy taxes and post armed guards on its borders.

Damian P.

Not a fake?

PJM's Richard Miniter says North Korea's nuclear test was real.

Damian P.

I'm getting a raging clue right now

This blogger has YouTubed the most recent South Park episode, which mercilessly mocks the "9/11 Truth Movement," and posted it online. If you haven't already seen it, check it out before Comedy Central asks that it be taken down.

My only quibble with the episode is that it never explained exactly why some of the more common 9/11 theories, like jet fuel not burning hot enough to melt steel, are wrong. Aside from that, it's another classic - and the big plot twist at the end makes perfect sense to those who suspect the "truthers" have been on Karl Rove's payroll all along, as a plot to thoroughly discredit the far left.

Damian P.

Not Legitimate Because I Say So

Who has the power to declare others "not part of the legitimate debate"? A disproportionate number on the left seem to think they do.

Peggy Noonan writes an excellent article in today's Wall Street Journal: The Sounds of Silencing: Why do Americans on the left think only they have the right to dissent?

... Let us be more pointed. Students, stars, media movers, academics: They are always saying they want debate, but they don't. They want their vision imposed. They want to win. And if the win doesn't come quickly, they'll rush the stage, curse you out, attempt to intimidate. ...

This also brings to mind the slashing of Republican GOTV van tires in the last election. And the general danger of vandalism on cars that displayed Bush-Cheney stickers. The left thinks they're allowed to treat their moral inferiors with less respect. The run up to this November seems no different.

Jon N

Not a "Clash of Civilizations", more a Kulturkampf

Lutheran Bismarck against German Catholics: small beer, an internal cultural spat. More to the point these days, the UK Labour government is, it would seem, getting serious about Muslim organizations it funds.

Spengler seems ever more pertinent. The West today is a "civilization" that may be fast losing its "culture". At some point, game over for many.

Mark C.

Update: A guilty plea in the UK from a real, not Bush-fantasized, person.

A British Muslim yesterday admitted plotting a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks in this country including one involving a radioactive "dirty bomb"...

Barot, 34, yesterday became the first Muslim accused of plotting explosions in this country to plead guilty. He was arrested in August 2004...

Quietly spoken and smartly dressed, Barot is not the usual image of a terrorist. He was born a Hindu and brought up in a north London suburb by middle-class parents.

Family friends have told The Daily Telegraph how Barot's father, a banker from Nairobi, fled the worsening situation for Asians in Kenya in 1973 [pray tell what sort of people might have caused that difficulty?], when Dhiren was two...

Gratitude, what? Given refuge you end up 'plotting a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks in this country including one involving a radioactive "dirty bomb"'.

Dhiren Barot, from Kingsbury, north London, also pleaded guilty to planning attacks against the IMF, World Bank and financial institutions in New York, Washington and Newark.

Some Kultur. More kampfing on our side needed.

Mark C.

Stunner ( I mean it)--Top UK general: Quit Iraq soon; Christian values threatened

A brave general with principles.

The head of the Army is calling for British troops to withdraw from Iraq "soon" or risk catastophic consequences for both Iraq and British society...

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Sir Richard also warns that a "moral and spiritual vacuum" has opened up in British society, which is allowing Muslim extremists to undermine "our accepted way of life."

The Chief of the General Staff believes that Christian values are under threat in Britain and that continuing to fight in Iraq will only make the situation worse...

He lambasts Tony Blair's desire to forge a "liberal democracy" in Iraq as a "naive" failure and he warns that "whatever consent we may have had in the first place" from the Iraqi people "has largely turned to intolerance."..

He says clearly we shoud "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems."

"We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear."..

"I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning," he said.

"The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East."

"That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naïve hope history will judge. I don’t think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition."..

Sir Richard warned that the consequences will be felt at home, where failure to support Christian values is allowing a predatory Islamist vision to take hold.

He said: "When I see the Islamist threat in this country I hope it doesn’t make undue progress because there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in this country."

"Our society has always been embedded in Christian values; once you have pulled the anchor up there is a danger that our society moves with the prevailing wind."..

"It is said that we live in a post Christian society. I think that is a great shame. The broader Judaic-Christian tradition has underpinned British society. It underpins the British army."

General Dannatt says he has "more optimism" [my emphasis - MC] that "we can get it right in Afghanistan."..

The Pope makes this related point:

...the Pope will not renounce to affirm the truth of the part in the name of a misunderstood pluralism. "The road of indulgency and dialogue, which the Vatican Council happily chose", today the Udienza Generale explained "should certainly be followed with firm perseverance. This however should not lead away from the duty to reconsider and to make clear with strength the lines that guide us and are inalienable from the Christian identity"...

Meanwhile, Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail thinks the freedom of the press in the West is under threat (full text not officially online) in drawing a comparison with a reporter's being murdered in Moscow. A truly useful idiot--Martin, certainly not Anna Politkovskaya.

Mark C.

Update: The General clarifies but does not retract; Brit military support him on web forum (ARRSE).

Upperdate: Very interesting comment thread at Army.ca, esp. regarding US conduct of things in Iraq.

Genocide deniers outraged

When they aren't rioting, people upset about the Danish Mohammed cartoons will tell you they're upset about Europe's double standard - that you can savage their prophet with impunity, but you can be prosecuted for denying the Holocaust.

This new development should send them even further over the edge:

Turkey’s prospects of joining the European Union took a heavy blow on Thursday night, after France’s National Assembly approved a bill which outraged Ankara and that critics say will set back the cause of reform within Turkey itself.

The French legislation, which could still be blocked by the senate, would make it a crime to deny that Armenians were the victims of genocide in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

The bill was read in Turkey as a sign that France was now permanently opposed to Ankara’s bid to join the EU. Bulent Arinc, the parliamentary speaker, criticised France’s “hostile attitude” towards Turkey. “This is a shameful decision. We are very sorry to see that this [bill] was passed only because of internal [French] politics.”

Turkey itself denies genocide and the judicial authorities have prosecuted writers who have used the term to describe the killings of Armenians.

One of the most prominent such figures is Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature on Thursday minutes after the French vote.

All kidding aside, I'm with Norman Geras on this one: denying the Armenian genocide (or the Holocaust) might be stupid, ignorant and almost certainly bigoted, but it shouldn't be a criminal offence.

Damian P.

Wasting scarce defence dollars

"The Goose Bay boondoggle": a pointed article by Sen. Colin Kenny (chair of this committee), which might be read in conjunction with this August post, "Stupid Conservative defence promises".

Mark C.

Cheek of the Week award

No contest.

Pakistan condemned North Korea's test as a “destabilising” act. It should know: Pakistan's inaugural nuclear tests in 1998 caused international outrage. In 2004 Abdul Qadeer Khan, the architect of Pakistan's nuclear-arms programme, admitted to having illicitly furnished North Korea, Libya and Iran with nuclear technology.

Mark C.

Das nordkoreanische Herrenvolk

This intrepretation, of which I was unaware, is really scary.

...cultural profiling, however, can get us into real danger. Japan’s emperor during World War II, Hirohito, was neither religious nor suicidal, and he led his nation into a war that no rational leader could have hoped to win. The point is relevant, because although journalists persist in calling North Korea a Stalinist state, its worldview is far closer to that of fascist [I think "militarist is a better descriptor - MC] Japan.

Like the Japanese in the 1930’s, the North Koreans trace the origins of their race back thousands of years to a single progenitor, and claim that this pure bloodline makes them uniquely virtuous. The country’s mass games — government-choreographed spectacles with a cast of more than 100,000 — are often mistaken by foreign journalists as exercises in Stalinism. They are in fact celebrations of ethnic homogeneity. “No masses in the world,” the state-run Cheollima magazine reminded readers in 2005, “are purer and more upright than our masses.”

In state propaganda, Kim Jong-il is often linked, as Hirohito once was, to images of white horses, snow-capped mountain peaks and other symbols of racial purity. South Korea, on the other hand, is regarded as contaminated by too close contact with other races. At a recent meeting between generals from both Koreas, the North delegation’s leader condemned the South for allowing racial intermarriage. “Not a single drop of ink,” he intoned, “must be allowed to fall into the Han River.”

Naturally enough, the North Koreans’ race theory, like that of the Japanese fascists, actuates a blithe indifference to international law. A uniquely virtuous people has no reason to obey its moral inferiors, be they allies or enemies...

The northern regime has so far restricted its racial propaganda to the home audience, because it wants the world to go on misperceiving it as a Stalinist state. This way we continue to pin our hopes on the kind of trust-building dialogue that worked so well with Communists in the 1980’s — and failed so disastrously with the pure-race crowd a half-century earlier...

While the North Koreans could kill a lot of people, they do not pose as great a threat to world security as imperial Japan did. Never have they shown any interest in forging an empire. All the same, the irrationality of their worldview is such that we should, at the very least, stop assuming that they would never use their own weaponry...

Mark C.

Watching a Liberal squirm

Two delightful posts at pro-Mickey I. Cerberus:

1) "Ignatieff, Rae, diplomacy and war crimes claims"

In the end, however, I think it is one thing to speak the truths to your own people and to speak the hard truths to problems that you can solve or attempt to solve. That demonstrates leadership: focusing on real problem solving rather than polling. Ignatieff is no doubt a strong and unequivocal supporter of Israel, and I do agree that we cannot mince words with hard subjects or let friends go unchallenged if they have done something wrong. But when it comes to your role as a leader dealing with international affairs over which you might, at best, play a very minor helpful role, I think public diplomacy is a better tactic.

In my view, Ignatieff did not show that diplomacy yesterday. Bob Rae did.

As Rae aptly put it, the comments were "unwise"...

Translation, please.

2) "Ignatieff on Israel"

...it seems pretty clear he did say that Qana was a tragedy and a grave mistake by Israel and equally clear that he didn't say that Israel committed crimes against humanity and should be hauled up in front of international court...

That's a relief; at least he's not Loopy Louise Arbour--another fine Liberal.

Mark C.

The Lone Ranger should ride again

Captain's Quarters highlights a certain double standard: "Cowboy Diplomacy Looks Pretty Good These Days"--to, gasp, the NY Times and soon to be gone and not missed Kofi Annan.

Reminds me of certain militaristic Canadian politicians.

This post may be peripherally (?) relevant.

Mark C.

Caught completely off guard

Five years after 9/11, I can't believe we're still reading stories like this:

Recent U.S. intelligence analyses of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs were flawed and the lack of clarity on the issue hampered U.S. diplomatic efforts to avert the underground blast detected Sunday, according to Bush administration officials.

Some recent secret reports stated that Pyongyang did not have nuclear arms and until recently was bluffing about plans for a test, according to officials who have read the classified assessments.

The analyses in question included a National Intelligence Estimate a consensus report of all U.S. spy agencies produced several months ago and at least two other classified reports on North Korea produced by senior officials within the office of the Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.

The officials said there were as many as 10 failures related to intelligence reporting on North Korean missile tests and the suspected nuclear test that harmed administration efforts to deal with the issue.

According to officials familiar with the reports, the failures included judgments that cast doubt about whether North Korea's nuclear program posed an immediate threat, whether North Korea could produce a militarily useful nuclear bomb, whether North Korea was capable of conducting an underground nuclear test and whether Pyongyang was bluffing by claiming it could carry one out.

The failures would be the latest in a string suffered by U.S. intelligence in recent years, as described in a series of government and nongovernment reports. Past stumbles have included missing chances to detect or stop the September 11 attacks, faulty assessments of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, the failure to predict the 1998 round of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, and overly optimistic predictions of the Iraqi reaction to a U.S. invasion.

(Of course, the stuff about North Korea not having working nuclear weapons may not be wrong, yet.)

Damian P.

How not to improve airport security

Deter the revelation of weaknesses with prosecution. Do we learn nothing? On CPAC yesterday I saw the Oct. 2 appearance before the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence of two senior Transport Canada bureaucrats: Marc Grégoire, Assistant Deputy Minister, Safety and Security, and Jean Barrette, Director, Security Operations. An unimpressive and shifty pair indeed, whose failure to give clear answers to many questions clearly annoyed the Chair, Sen. Colin Kenny.

And now this from Transport Canada:

Politicians and free press advocates are condemning the prospect that a Sun Media reporter could be charged for exposing serious weaknesses in Canada's airport security.

Le Journal de Montreal's Fabrice de Pierrebourg faces two potential charges for breaching federal regulations when he repeatedly entered prohibited areas at Montreal's Trudeau Airport to test heightened security measures five years after Sept. 11. Each charge carries a penalty of up to $5,000...

Sun Media lawyer Bernard Pageau said de Pierrebourg is considered a "suspect" in an ongoing investigation by Transport Canada [my emphasis - MC]. Any charge laid would be strongly contested, he said.

"He was not acting as an offender. He was not doing something that could be chargeable -- in fact he was only reporting. And that is protected by the Charter of Rights," he said...

Mark C.

"Afghanistan has not been 'invaded' by foreign forces"

A letter of mine in the Ottawa Citizen today:

Re: Canada loses 40th soldier to bomb, Oct. 8.

This story refers to "the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban." But there was no invasion of Afghanistan.

Before the fall of Kabul, and of most of the rest of Afghanistan, to the insurgent Afghan Northern Alliance in November 2001 -- and the consequent collapse of the Taliban regime -- there were no foreign regular combat formations in Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance did receive air support and assistance from special forces (both U.S. and British); that, however, is not an invasion. Substantial foreign ground-combat forces -- including Canadian -- only entered the country after the Taliban had been deposed by indigenous Afghan forces, and those foreign troops entered with the agreement of the Northern Alliance.

It is most unfortunate that the mythical "invasion" of Afghanistan has become common currency amongst journalists -- and this is no mere quibble. Describing what the U.S. and U.K. did in Afghanistan as an "invasion" tends to equate those actions in people's minds with the real invasion of Iraq. That equation implicitly and wrongly calls into question the legitimacy of NATO and coalition actions in Afghanistan, which have been authorized unanimously by the United Nations Security Council.

Mark C.

Canada's Commitment to South Korea

Technically, the war between North and South Korea is not over. And if direct military action begins again Canada is supposed to come to the aid of the South. CP:

"We still have a commitment to South Korea," says Jim Fergusson, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

"When the war wound down and the Panmunjon agreement was signed, Canada along with the other UN countries that had participated committed to the defence of South Korea.

"There's an opt-out clause in it, but technically we committed that we would come to the defence of South Korea."

Canada has never opted out of that promise.

Canadians are no doubt prepared to clamour loudly to deaf North Korean ears for a ceasefire. But once even one soldier dies, likethe left will declare the conflict unwinnable and try to pull them out.

What would we do? Let's ask this question now so we can let our allies know whether they can count on us.

Jon N

Global Warning Alert

Wow! After this year's record storm season, the US 'National Hurricane Center' is predicting yet another hurricane. Storm. Depression.

It even contains advanced reports of flooding, mudslides and howling winds up to 73-mph. (Stop laughing.)

Truth be told, there is a depression of sorts, though it's exclusively in the Left over the public's diminished attention and credulity over global warming hysteria. (yawn) Yeah, so the planet is warming. It's been doing so since the middle Pleistocene. Significant extinctions took place before humans could even light fire: mammoths, dire wolves, sabre-toothed kitties, great sloths.

There is another significant extinction on its way... marxist ideology. Don't let the Left's displaced depression and anger ruin your day, people. The polar bears I will miss, perhaps. Not the trolls.

UPDATE: 15:42 p.m. EDT

"THIS SYSTEM HAS NOT BECOME ANY BETTER-ORGANIZED THIS MORNING AND
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE FORECAST TO BECOME LESS FAVORABLE
FOR DEVELOPMENT THANKS TO THE PRESENCE OF AN UPPER TROUGH
LOCATED JUST WEST OF PUERTO RICO."

Man, talk about tropical depression...

Ranald Hay

Quote of the Day

The South Park episode on 9/11 conspiracy theories hasn't aired in Canada yet, but Screw Loose Change posts this exchange:

Cartman: ...did you know that over 1/4th of the people in America think that 9/11 was a conspiracy? Are you saying that 1/4th of Americans are retards?

Kyle: Yes, I am saying that 1/4th of Americans are retards.

Stan: At least 1/4th.

Kyle: Let's take a test sample. There's 4 of us, you're a retard. That's 1/4th.

Damian P.

Cowardly Columbia

After last week's disgusting incidents at Columbia University, where Stalinist thugs violently shut down a speech by the anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen, the university administration has finally taken action:

How do you avoid political embarrassment at Columbia University these days?

Disinvite invited guests to a talk sure to interest conservatives and other hawks in the larger NYC community. A talk, by the bye, well advertised in several major conservative blogs.

Why, we wonder, at 4:45 in the afternoon, a mere 3:15 hours before Walid Shoebat and his panel were to speak to an audience at Columbia University, all of whom had RSVP'd to the Columbia University College Republicans who were sponsoring the talk, and received invitations from them to the event, has Jewelnel Davis, the advising officer to Student Governing Board groups at Columbia decided to rescind all of the invitations?

Can it possibly be that, having been severely embarrassed by last week's events - when radical leftists at Columbia were left free to act as thugs and attack the Minutemen - and the blogstorm it precipitated, resulting in severe, public criticism of Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, for his lack of initiative at solving the problem, this week they decided to solve the problem - at the last minute - by restricting their popular lecturer to Columbia students and 20 invited guests.

Disgraceful, but not at all surprising.

Damian P.

Not a parody

Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph: " Give Iran the bomb: it might make the regime more pliable."

Damian P.

Iggy: Qana Bombing, War Crime

....he said that Israel’s bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana was a war crime. Dozens of civilians died in the attack. Ironically, the controversy erupted as Ignatieff was attempting to explain a previous gaffe about Qana.

He yet again clarified his position on the conflict, calling himself a “lifelong friend of Israel” and stressing his support for Israel’s right to defend itself.

Toronto Star

Michael K

Le Dud

Kim Jong Il is looking more and more like the laughingstock of the world:

France said outright for the first time Wednesday that North Korea's proclaimed nuclear test produced such a small blast that it must have failed, and analysts warned such challenging talk could lead Pyongyang to try again.

World powers stepped up a hunt for clues about the insular communist regime's test, with Britain sending refueling jets to join Japanese aircraft trawling the skies for any traces of radiation.

The blast from North Korea's first nuclear weapons test was believed to have been the equivalent of hundreds or even thousands of tons of TNT, and was strong enough to send seismic waves as far as Japan's main island. But verifying exactly what happened _ or even determining conclusively whether it was a nuclear device _ could take several more days, if not weeks, officials said Wednesday.

If some Western powers are to be believed, the alleged test announced Monday by Pyongyang had a force of one kiloton or less _ equivalent to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT but far less than 15 kiloton force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The accepted wisdom is that George W. Bush made the North Koreans so mad with that "Axis of Evil" stuff, that they went out and tried to go nuclear. A French analyst ups the ante and says we're only agitating the North Koreans further by belittling their "nuclear" test:

Such speculation about a dud test could be read as a challenge by Kim Jong Il, the North's reclusive leader, to consider carrying out a second test to prove naysayers wrong, analysts said.

"The reaction could be exactly to carry out another explosion, to make sure it succeeds," said Georges Le Guelte, a nuclear expert at France's Institute for International and Strategic Research.

Damian P.

Skipper, R.I.P.

Every Newfoundlander of my generation has fond memories of Ray Bellew.

Damian P.

The Canadian way: Do the crime, not the time/Not the American way

A Canadian $81,000 get out of jail free card. One hopes "Canada's New Government" (the announcement does not thrill me) does deal with this sort of thing.

The B.C. Court of Appeal says conditional sentencing, not jail time, is a good enough deterrent for crooks even in cases where they've run off with a large sum of someone else's money.

In a unanimous judgment written by Justice Allan Thackray, supported by Chief Justice Lance Finch and Justice Mary Southin, the court said the will of Parliament and the intent of the Criminal Code is to ensure prison is the punishment of last resort.

"There is little likelihood that [Michelle] Burkart will pose a risk to reoffend in a similar manner in that, if for no other reason, she will never again be in a position of trust, enabling her to do so," wrote Justice Thackray.

She posed no risk to public safety, so he cancelled her 18-month prison stint and replaced it with an 18-month conditional sentence.

Burkart, a 38-year-old former trust company employee, had appealed as too harsh the punishment imposed by Provincial Court Judge Gregory Bowden.

She pleaded guilty May 30 to theft over $5,000 -- a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' incarceration...

A 15-year-plus employee of TC Canada Trust, Burkart was a manager in the customer service department. But she liked to play the Lower Mainland casinos and stole $81,400 between March 2003 and March 2004 feeding her habit...

[Out of sequence for effect] The appeal court decision will anger those who want to see criminals doing more hard time [hard time in Canada for white collar crime? The reporter jests or else has an agenda - MC] and comes as the Conservative government prepares to restrict the use of conditional sentences -- which can range from strict house arrest to loose community supervision.

The Tories' tough-on-crime Bill C-9 would prohibit such sentences for serious offences with a maximum punishment of 10 years' imprisonment or more, such as this one...

Lots more juicy detail in the story. H/t to DaninVan.

More on the scandal of Canadian white collar crime punishment here (Adscam: Brault and Coffin). Meanwhile, back in the USA, a real sentence. Also beating the rap, terminally (and a whiff of the Canadian approach).

No wonder Lord Black of Crossharbour--one of the great disappointments; brilliance cast away for lucre--has now decided he might prefer to be Canadian after all (see end of link), what with a prisoner transfer agreement.

Another American sentence here:

...conditions for Swartz and Kozlowski will be harsh. State prisons tend to house more violent criminals, such as those prosecuted for rape and homicide. White-collar criminals sentenced to federal prison often go to minimum-security facilities derisively dubbed "Club Fed."..

And here.

My hobby-horse about why so few Canadian white collar criminals ever even get prosecuted: read this and the links. No progress seems to be being made.

Our scarlet gumshoes, and others, have achieved this after "...Bre-X Minerals Ltd. lost an estimated $6 billion in the most notorious stock swindle in Canadian history...": one case with a maximum two years in prison (hysterical laughter all around)--if convicted.

Be wide awake on Feb. 2, 2007. How odd that media coverage of this case has been so scant recently, and has failed to point out contrasts with US (federal and state) prosecution of white collar crime.

Mark C.

The even nuttier professor

A few weeks ago, I defended a UNH professor's right to mouth off about 9/11 conspiracy theories in class, as long as he wasn't forcing his students to accept them. By contrast, I think the dismissal of this jackass would be perfectly justifiable. (Of course, he'd probably end up teaching at Columbia before too long.)

A University of Wisconsin-Madison instructor who has come under scrutiny for saying that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks compares President Bush to Adolf Hitler in an essay that his students are being required to buy.

The essay, "Interpreting the Unspeakable: The Myth of 9/11," is part of a $20 book of essays from 15 authors called "9/11 and American Empire: Muslims, Jews, and Christians Speak Out," according to an unedited copy first obtained by WKOW-TV in Madison and later by the Associated Press.

The book is on the syllabus for the twice-a-week course, "Islam: Religion and Culture," being taught by part-time instructor Kevin Barrett, but only three of the essays are required reading, not including Barrett's essay.

Barrett is active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, whose members say U.S. officials, not al-Qaida terrorists, were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Like Bush and the neocons, Hitler and the Nazis inaugurated their new era by destroying an architectural monument and blaming its destruction on their designated enemies," he wrote.

Barrett said Tuesday he was comparing the attacks to the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, in 1933, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

"That's not comparing them as people, that's comparing the Reichstag fire to the demolition of the World Trade Center, and that's an accurate comparison that I would stand by," he said.

But he did say in an interview: "Hitler had a good 20 to 30 IQ points on Bush so comparing Bush to Hitler would in many ways be an insult to Hitler."

[...]

One essay Barrett is requiring is entitled: "A Clash Between Justice and Greed," about how conflicts between Islam and the western world were made up after the "collapse of the Soviet Union to justify U.S. 'defense' spending, and to provide a pretext of controlling the world's resources."

"The Remaking of Islam in the Post 911 Era" is about the assault of Islamic people by the Rand Corporation.

The author of "Interpreting Terrorism: Muslim Problem or Covert Operations Nightmare?" contends some Western intelligence agencies are doing acts of terrorism to make it look like radical Islamics.

If someone like Charles Johnson said 9/11 conspiracy theories should be an integral part of an introductory course on Islam, he'd be denounced as an Islamophobe. Go figure.

Damian P.

Iraq's death toll

A study in The Lancet suggests that over 600,000 Iraqis have been violently killed since the fall of Saddam:

A new study by public health researchers estimates that up to 600,000 Iraqi people — nearly 1 in 40 — have died violently since the American-led invasion of the country in March 2003.

The estimate, which far exceeds figures compiled by the United Nations and the Iraqi Government, is the second made by a group of American and Italian researchers and used a sampling of nearly 2,000 households across Iraq to extrapolate a total number of violent deaths, be they caused by crime, the US-led coalition or sectarian strife.

The first report, issued in October 2004 by a team led by Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, estimated that 100,000 people had been killed in the first year of the war. The study was criticised for its narrow sample and wide margin of error.

The new study, published in the online edition of The Lancet, the British medical journal, also accepts a broad range of error, with its lead author, Gilbert Burnham, also of Johns Hopkins, saying the true figure could lie anywhere between 426,369 to 793,663.

It estimated that a total of 654,965 more Iraqis had died as a consequence of the war than "would have been expected in a non-conflict situation". Of those, 601,000 it was said had died directly of violent causes, including gunfire, car bombs, air strikes and other explosions. The rest had suffered from a general decline in healthcare and sanitary standards due to failing water supplies, sewerage and electricity supply.

[...]

The study found that up to 15,000 people are dying violently every month in Iraq, a level that surpasses by far the most recent UN estimates.

Last month the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq said that 3,009 civilians had died violently in August, down from 3,590 in July, two of the worst months of the war so far. More than 5,000 of the deaths were reported in Baghdad.

The US military does not keep an official count of the civilian casualties in Iraq, but according to its latest report to Congress, around 120 Iraqis, including police officers and soldiers, died every day in August, a total of 3,600, up from 26 a day, or 800 per month, in 2004. The John Hopkins figures also tower over the running totals maintained by the Iraq Body Count, an independent group that monitors media reports to estimate the numbers of Iraqi dead. The group's current total stands at 48,000.

Even accounting for the differences in methodology, the 600,000 figure is so much higher than nearly every other death count that I can't help viewing the study with some degree of skepticism. (If it said most of the deaths were caused by problems with sanitation and the Iraqi health system, that would be very different - but it clearly lists violence, especially gunfire, as the most common cause of death.) But even the lower numbers are a devastating indictment of the way the Bush Administration has allowed the country to fall into total chaos - and deeply sobering to those of us who supported the war.

More here.

Damian P.

Update: the Chicago Tribune political blog raises some questions about the study.

Tim Blair is even more skeptical.

Plane hits NYC building

An apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side has been struck by a light plane:

The aircraft struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and burning and falling debris was seen. Flames were seen shooting out of the windows.

"There's huge pieces of debris falling," said one witness who refused to give her full name. "There's so much falling now, I've got to get away."

Whether anyone was injured was not known, and it was unclear if the crash was an act of terrorism.

The address of the building is 524 E. 72nd Street — a 50-story condominium tower built in 1986 and located nearby Sotheby's Auction House. It has 183 apartments, many of which sell for more than $1 million.

My first instinct (and hope) is that it's a horrible accident, not a deliberate act of terror. Megan McArdle - who lives not too far from the crash site, I think - feels the same way.

Damian P.

Update: Drudge says a New York Yankees player, Cory Lidle, was on the plane. No link yet, but Fox News Channel says Lidle was the pilot.

Afstan and the pathological left

Where should the disease be placed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)? A good analysis from Celestial Junk.

Mark C.

Failed US policy to stop the spread of WMD--and failed world efforts

An illuminating post by William Arkin of the Washington Post (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs).

...If all else fails, STRATCOM says, fear not: Part of the "new" capacity to "combat" weapons of mass destruction includes "consequence management," that is, cleaning up the mess after the enemy attacks.

What we are really witnessing is government at its worst, not just promising a capability on which it cannot deliver, but worse, communicating American resolve and toughness on the one hand while exposing weakness and impotence when it matters.

Tomorrow: The empty war plans to combat WMD.

And some absolutely accurate observations by Andrew Coyne:

... we -- the world, the West, the United States -- are simply unable to come to terms with the threat that now confronts us.

The world's worst dictators, it is now clear, may acquire the world's most destructive weapons with impunity -- even as a new breed of macro-terrorists advertise themselves as potential after-market customers. Either we do not recognize this for the existential threat that it is, or we cannot summon the nerve, collectively or individually, to take the steps required to save ourselves...

...Expect a lot of talk in coming days and weeks to the effect that this is a "vital test of the UN's credibility." That would be, by my count, the seventh such test the UN has undergone in recent years, all of which it has failed with flying colours: Kosovo, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq (17 times!) [what about Darfur? - MC], with Iran the next in line. Each time, the UN is warned it risks "going the way of the League of Nations" -- you know, after it failed to prevent Mussolini's annexation of Abyssinia. Huh? It's been one long League of Nations since the start, an endless series of Abyssinias...

We simply do not have the stomach for this fight. We will learn no lessons from this latest crisis, as we have learned none from those before. But be assured our adversaries will. In Iran, they are watching and learning from North Korea's example, as North Korea had learned from Iran's, each discovering in its turn that there are no checks on its ambitions, nor any world to stop it. And when, as the wisest heads advise, we abandon Afghanistan to the Taliban, and Iraq to al-Qaeda, the nuclear bazaar really will be open.

Still, I don't want to leave you with the impression that all is dark. It could be worse. Just imagine if Saddam Hussein was still in power.

David Frum makes the link with Iran.

Some critics of the Bush administration argue that North Korea seeks nuclear bombs not in order to wage nuclear war against the South, but as a way of pressing its case for more recognition and more aid. That's not a nuclear bomb — it's a call for help!

But even if this were true, the policy implications do not change. If North Korea and its Chinese patron do not soon find themselves strategically substantially worse off than they were before, then the US and the world will have flashed a green light to the mullahs on their drive to a bomb. And these mullahs are already racing through all the yellows ....

Steve Janke asks if the Canadian government should continue providing aid to North Korea. Good question.

Mark C.

NY Times blames Crusaders--wrongly

So much for a "newspaper of record": all the history that's not "fit to print". A letter just sent to the Gray Lady:

The story, "Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center" (Oct. 11), states "that there is a deep and troubled history between Islam and Europe, with the Crusaders and the Ottoman Empire jostling each other for centuries...". That statemen is a chronological impossibility. The Crusader presence in the mainland Levant ended with the fall of Acre to the Mamluk Egyptian Sultan, al-Ashraf, in 1291. The origin of the Ottoman Empire is usually considered to be the declaration of an independent state by Osman I in 1299.

The Ottomans were certainly in conflict with Europeans for centuries--they entered the Balkans in the 14th century and they besieged Vienna as recently as 1683; but they certainly did not "jostle" the Crusaders for centuries.

Facts on the Muslim conquests of Christian lands after Mohammed and on the Crusades are here. Pity the Times seems unaware of the big picture concerning who was conquering whom and when.

Mark C.

Update: See "Comments" for a gentle correction from a friend and my reply.

The quietest city

The Toronto Star's Martin Regg Cohn is one of the few outsiders who has seen North Korea from within - three times, in fact:

Emerging from your cloistered hotel — almost always in the company of government minders — the first thing that strikes you about North Korea is the silence.

The world may be in a frenzy about the Axis of Evil, but morning rush hour in Pyongyang is a strangely subdued affair. With virtually no cars on the road, and only a handful of dilapidated trams lumbering down the creaky tracks, the enduring sound in this capital of 3 million people is that of shuffling feet.

Columns of commuters walk to work, avoiding all eye contact, staring intently at their shoes. Cocooned in a time capsule that has managed to produce a nuclear bomb.

By night, the lights are extinguished in most apartment blocks because of power shortages, transforming Pyongyang into a ghost town.

The eerie quiet is punctuated by the crowing of roosters kept on as emergency rations by hungry tenants.

Traffic lights grace every intersection, but without electricity they are useless.

Public buildings go unheated in winter, forcing students and hospital patients to bundle up in long underwear and overcoats.

The Times suggests that China and South Korea intend to continue their coddling of Kim Jong Il's hermit kingdom - largely because they would be most directly affected by a collapse of the North Korean government and subsequent humanitarian crisis:

Chinese foreign officials in Beijing spoke of the “negative impact” the test had had on their relations with North Korea, an unprecedented shift. But in New York, where the diplomatic aftershocks of the test are being negotiated, profound differences among the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council were becoming ever more apparent.

China’s Ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, said that it supported punitive actions. But he said that these must be “constructive, appropriate but prudent”. And China balked at the idea of giving any UN resolution teeth, a sign that it would not tolerate anything that would destabilise the region by toppling the North Korean Government.

Diplomats said last night that China opposed US plans for international inspections of all cargo going in an out of North Korea. Beijing also wants any sanctions focussed only on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, and does not want any reference to enforcement under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Russia broadly endorsed the Chinese position.

Even before this week, the US and Japan have favoured the most aggressive action against North Korea, but they have been frustrated by China, South Korea and Russia, which seek a stable continuation of Kim Jong Il’s regime rather than the chaos and refugee exodus that could result from his overthrow.

The US appears to have recognised this. Yesterday its UN Ambassador, John Bolton, circulated a draft resolution that would deprive Kim Jong Il of the French brandy he favours, but not introduce the interception of North Korean ships.

The draft proposes banning all sales of arms and nuclear technology to and from North Korea as well as involvement with Mr Kim’s money-launderers, drug smugglers and counterfeiters. It also bans the sale of “luxury items” — clearly directed at Mr Kim.

More here.

Damian P.

Welcome to the family, Kaleb

Kaleb Penny, my first nephew (also my parents' first grandchild, and my grandmother's second great-grandchild), came into the world yesterday evening. The child and his mother, my brother's wife, are doing fine.

Being an uncle is a pretty sweet gig all around - most of the fun stuff about parenthood, but little, if any, diaper changing. I'm already thinking about what cool stuff I can buy him for Christmas. (Maybe some bath toys.)

Damian P.

Streisand Uses Artist Defence

There was Streisand, enduring a smattering of very loud jeers as she and "George Bush" — a celebrity impersonator — muddled through a skit that portrayed the president as a bumbling idiot. Though most of the crowd offered polite applause during the slightly humorous routine, it got a bit too long, especially for a few in the audience who just wanted to hear Streisand sing....

With that one F-word, the jeers ended. And the message was delivered —no one gets away with trying to upstage Barbra Streisand, especially not in her hometown. Once the outburst (which Streisand later apologized for) was over, Streisand noted that "the artist's role is to disturb," and delivered a message of tolerance before launching into a serenely beautiful rendition of "Somewhere".

Toronto Star

Note: Every singer interviewed on Much Music refers to herself as an artist. What on earth can that mean?

Michael K

Don't get cocky

Da Bears are 5-0 - outscoring their opponents 156-36 - and no one is happier than I. (I take back everything I said about Rex Grossman during pre-season.) But I don't even want to hear the words beginning with "S" and "B" until we're in the NFC title game. I've been burned too many times to get too excited this early.

Damian P.

"Why Muslim women should thank Straw"

A Muslim woman writes to The Times and makes many intelligent points, esp. about what Islam actually requires of females (h/t to DaninVan in his comment on this post; the "first Straw" here).

Mark C.

Here we go again

Looks like the jihad against Denmark is back on:

Dozens of protesters pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday after Danish television broadcast footage deemed insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, witnesses said.

Denmark's state TV aired footage on Friday of a number of members of the youth wing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) drawing cartoons in August mocking the Prophet. Iran condemned the broadcast.

Reuters witnesses said protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs into the embassy compound. The crowd chanted "Down with Zionists" and "God praise the party of God".

Riot police guarded the embassy and two fire trucks stood nearby. Firefighters extinguished a tyre which was set alight next to the embassy compound wall, the witnesses said.

Denmark's ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Monday to complain about the video clips, which follow cartoons published in the Danish press last year that sparked outrage in the Islamic world. [via LGF]

Damian P.

Hot GOP Video

As seen on Drudge:

The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained an exclusive copy of a "scary" campaign advertisement created by Hollywood producer and director David Zucker that was intended to be used by GOP organizations in the closing weeks of the 2006 campaign.

However, the advertisement was deemed "too hot" by GOP strategists all across Washington, DC who have refused to use it!

Jon N

Against the veil

Britain's finance minister, Gordon Brown, joins his colleague Jack Straw in saying Muslim women should not cover their faces:

British finance minister Gordon Brown said that it would be better for Britain if fewer Muslim women wore veils that covered their faces, in the latest part of an ongoing saga here prompted by a cabinet colleague's comments.

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw -- now in the cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons -- wrote in his local newspaper last Thursday that he asks Muslim women to remove their veils when they visit his constituency office in Blackburn, northwest England.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown, favourite to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair when he steps down, was asked on the BBC whether, without putting any obligation or pressure on Muslim women, he would "prefer it and think it better for Britain if fewer people wore veils".

"That is what Jack Straw has said and I support," Brown told the broadcaster.

Brown emphasized that Straw was "not proposing new laws, he is proposing a debate about the cultural changes that might have to take place in Britain".

My feelings about this controversy are considerably more mixed than you might assume. I'm certainly no fan of repressive religious garb, and no Western country needs a public debate about strict Islamic customs more than Great Britain. But I get a very uneasy feeling when government officials muse about what people should or shouldn't wear - especially when the controversial clothing is supposedly a religious requirement.

Damian P.

"NDP leader renews call for Canada to quit UN"

A Cannonball Press report:

OTTAWA (CBP): Federal NDP leader Jack Layton repeated his demand that Canada withdraw for the United Nations during Question Period in the House of Commons today.

Mr Layton, after expressing his outrage at reports the U.N. Security Council plans a mission to Afghanistan to express its continuing commitment to the country, said "Canadians want out this Bush-controlled organ and they want out now."

"Afghan villages are being bombed [see end of link - MCC]! How can Canada continue to remain a member of the United Nations when its key body unanimously and blindly supports George Bush's obsessive war against the desperately poor and combat-ravished people of Afghanistan?" the NDP leader asked Prime Minister Harper.

Mr Harper responded by saying "Canada will not abandon its international commitments and its commitment to help the people of Afghanistan." He remarked that "Any club Mr Layton wished to leave would, no doubt, be happy to see him go. But Canadians, unlike the Honourable Member for Toronto-Danforth, are not quitters."

When asked to comment, Jane Taber of Bell Globemedia enthused almost hysterically: "Jack sure keeps the pot bubbling!" She added "That Steve, though, what a wet blanket!"

Mark "Cannonball" C.

Darfur update: Maybe this is a far as the UN can go

Not very far, unless Sudan, China, Russia and Arab/Muslim states have a change of heart (?!?--see Update).

About 200 U.N. military and civilian staff will deploy to Darfur to support an African Union peace monitoring mission after Khartoum rejected a plan to send thousands of U.N. troops into western Sudan...

"U.N. staff deployed to Darfur ... would be fully dedicated to supporting the African Union operation and will operate under the operational control of (the AU)," the letter [a joint U.N.-AU letter to Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir - MC] said.

Khartoum has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising a U.N. takeover of the cash-strapped AU mission in violent congo where experts say 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.

"It is understood that the overall planned support shall be conducted in transparency and with the full cooperation of the government of Sudan," the letter added.

Khartoum says it welcomes this support. The proposal looks to be a short-term fix for the deadlock over the deployment of U.N. troops between Khartoum and the international community...

Mark C.

Update: "The governments of Arab countries as well as China, India, Pakistan and Malaysia should put pressure on Sudan to accept a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Wednesday." Good luck.

The Korean conundrum

A major article, written before the "nuclear" event, by Robert D. Kaplan. He foresees China as the eventual winner, whatever happens: a re-united Korea or a Chinese satellite state in the north. Korean hatred of Japan is the key. Considerable, and depressing, military analysis too.

Mark C.

The interpretation of Islam that guides al Qaeda et al.

Stems largely from an Egyptian Muslim philosopher who was repelled by what he found in Colorado in 1949. Rebecca Bynum looks at some of Sayyid Qutb's main ideas from his seminal work, Milestones:

...the mujahadeen are also fighting for freedom, but a freedom very differently defined. According to the Muslim philosopher Sayyid Qutb,

"This din [religion] is a universal declaration of the freedom of man from slavery to other men and to his own desires, which is also a form of human servitude. It is a declaration that the sovereignty belongs only to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. It challenges all such systems based on the sovereignty of man, i.e., where man attempts to usurp the attribute of Divine sovereignty. Any system in which final decisions are referred to human beings, and in which the source of all authority are men, deifies human beings by designating others than Allah as lords over men. (Milestones* pg. 47)"

In Islamic terms, the western concept of political sovereignty resting with the people is a form of idolatry, for Allah’s word, as given through Muhammad, is regarded as the only legitimate source of legislation, and in addition, obedience to Allah’s law is the only form of worship Islam allows. These two ideas: that the divine is a law giver, and that obedience to that law is what constitutes worship, are the two most alien concepts confronting the western mind when analyzing Islam. They combine to create the Islamic requirement for territorial sovereignty, something entirely unique among the world’s religions. According to Islamic doctrine, if a Muslim obeys the laws of man, as he must while residing in a modern western state for example, he actually worships man and becomes an idolater guilty of shirk – worshipping other than the one god, Allah. This is a grave sin for a Muslim and so to atone he must engage in the struggle against jahiliyya, which is to say, all non-Muslim culture and ideas, as these are thought to arise out of ignorance of the truth of Islam. And since Islam disallows criticism of itself, it forms a completely closed system of thought with all definitions, including the definition of freedom, self-contained. Qutb puts it plainly:

"Since the objective of Islam is a decisive declaration of man’s freedom, not merely on the philosophical plane but also in the actual life, it must employ jihad. It is immaterial whether the homeland of Islam – in the true Islamic sense, dar al-Islam – is in a condition of peace or whether it is threatened by its neighbors. When Islam calls for peace, its objective is not a superficial peace requiring only that part of the earth where the followers of Islam are residing remain secure. The peace of Islam means that din (i.e., the law of the society) be purified for Allah, that all people should obey Allah alone, and every system that permits some people to rule over others be abolished. (Milestones pg. 51)"

"Thus, this struggle is not a temporary phase, but an eternal state, because truth and falsehood cannot coexist on this earth. Whenever Islam made the universal declaration that Allah’s Lordship be established over the entire earth and men be free from servitude to other men, the usurpers of Allah’s authority on earth have struck out against it fiercely; they never tolerated it. Islam was obligated to strike back and free men throughout the earth from the clutches of these usurpers. The eternal struggle for the freedom of man will continue until all religion is for Allah and man is free to worship and obey his Sustainer. (Milestones pg. 53)"

(The copy of Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones cited is copyright 1990 and published by American Trust Publications, Indianapolis, IN., ISBN: 0-89259-076-9)

Remember, this is Qutb; I am not able to assess Ms Bynum's interpretation in the article of Islam in general. Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Mark C.

First Dud Nuke Test Ever

Jeffry Lewis, director of the Managing the Atom project at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, at Defensetech.org writes:

A plutonium device should produce a yield in the range of the 20 kilotons, like the one we dropped on Nagasaki. No one has ever dudded their first test of a simple fission device. North Korean nuclear scientists are now officially the worst ever.

Of course, I want to see what the US IC says. If/when the test vents, we could have some radionuclide data -- maybe in the next 72 hours or so.

But, from the initial data, I'd say someone with no workable nuclear weapons (Kim Jong Il, I am looking at you) should be crapping his pants right now.

First the missile, then the bomb. Got anything else you wanna try out there, chief?

Jon N

HT: RealClearPolitics

A North Korean dud?

Bill Gertz of the Washington Times says North Korea's alleged underground nuclear test was a failure:

U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the blast's readings were shy of a typical nuclear detonation. "We're still evaluating the data, and as more data comes in, we hope to develop a clearer picture," said one official familiar with intelligence reports. "There was a seismic event that registered about 4 on the Richter scale, but it still isn't clear if it was a nuclear test. You can get that kind of seismic reading from high explosives." The underground explosion, which Pyongyang dubbed a historic nuclear test, is thought to have been the equivalent of several hundred tons of TNT, far short of the several thousand tons of TNT, or kilotons, that are signs of a nuclear blast, the official said.

I certainly hope so, but where North Korea is concerned, it's pretty safe to assume the worst. Meanwhile, even North Korea's only real ally is furious about Kim Jong Il's latest publicity stunt:

China responded with rare fury to neighbouring North Korea’s nuclear test, resorting to language generally reserved for imperialist opponents rather than communist friends.

Beijing’s response was unusually swift. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has ignored the widespread opposition of the international community and brazenly carried out a nuclear test,” it said.

Long gone are the days when China and North Korea described their relationship as being “as close as lips and teeth”. Indeed, North Korea’s test has delivered China to a diplomatic crossroads: it can choose to act tough with a troublesome neighbour or to stick with the cajoling and persuasion that have now been seen to fail.

[...]

China’s actions matter since it is the only friend to its communist cousin. It provides 33 per cent of all North Korea’s imports and is believed to account for 70 per cent of the country’s oil needs and much of its grain imports — all at knock-down prices.

However, assistance is no longer provided out of good-neighbourliness but because Beijing fears that North Korea’s collapse would trigger a flood of refugees across its border and create instability along its northeastern flank.

China can cut off the aid, and has done. It briefly closed the oil pipeline in 2003 for maintenance, and Pyongyang was quick to return to the six-party talks. That now may be less of a lever. Chinese cereal exports to the North slumped in the first seven months of this year to less than a third of their 2005 levels. Imports, too, have shrunk. If China failed to deter North Korea from testing, it is unclear how much leverage it has through traditional means.

The Times notes that Japan and possibly Taiwan could build their own nuclear deterrents if North Korea does so - giving China even more incentive to try stopping this thing.

Damian P.

Update: more "was it a dud?" coverage here.

Russia in 2006

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a brave and fearless critic of Vladmir Putin and his Chechnya policy, was murdered this past weekend:

Ms. Politkovskaya, a mother of two, was the 13th Russian journalist to be targeted in a contract-style murder since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York.

A fearless liberal of seemingly boundless energies, during the 2002 Moscow theater siege she went in and spoke to the hostage takers. But she was often at odds with a Russia that has been increasingly authoritarian and xenophobic under Mr. Putin.

"She was the most critical journalist remaining in Russia, never afraid to write what she thought," says Sergei Strokan, an editor at the liberal daily newspaper Kommersant and longtime colleague of Politkovskaya. "There seems no way to explain her killing, except that it somehow relates to her work as a critical, investigative journalist. But why should it happen now?"

[...]

A Novaya Gazeta editor said Monday that Politkovskaya had been preparing an exposé on torture and disappearances in Chechnya carried out by security forces under control of the pro-Moscow prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov when she was killed.

"We never got the article, but she had evidence and there were photographs," deputy editor Vitaly Yaroshevsky said.

The Putin government is cracking down on Georgians living in Russia, in the wake of a political standoff with the former Soviet Republic:

In the midst of a political standoff with the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Mr. Putin authorized a crackdown on Georgian-owned businesses, called for tougher curbs on immigration, and said non-ethnic Russians should be prevented from operating in the marketplaces.

"What Putin said is exactly what Belov has been saying; the main theme is Russia for the Russians," says Alla Gerber, president of the Russian Holocaust Foundation, a human rights group.

Experts warn that the Kremlin is moving into a political minefield that has been primed and put on hair trigger by Belov and his rapidly-growing DPNI ["Movement Against Illegal Immigration"].

In late August, six days of rioting in the northern town of Kondopoga left at least three people dead and forced hundreds of Caucasians - dark-skinned people from the former Soviet Caucasus region - to flee.

Similar upheavals have been reported over the past six months hitting far-flung Russian towns in Saratov, Chita, Rostov, Astrakhan, and Irkutsk regions.

And a survey conducted last month by the state-run VTsIOM agency found that 57 percent of Russians believe that Kondopoga-like riots could break out in their town. In a poll by the independent Levada Center last week, 52 percent said they favor declaring Russia "the Russian people's state," with restrictions on non-ethnic Russians.

[...]

Russia's relations with Georgia have been deteriorating since the pro-democracy "Rose Revolution" three years ago brought the West-leaning Mr. Saakashvili, pledging to bring his little country into NATO by 2009, to power.

Last week, Georgia released four Russian military personnel it had accused of spying, but Moscow has responded by escalating the pressure on Georgia and Georgians.

About a million Georgian expatriates live in Russia, and authorities claim 300,000 of them are working in the country illegally. Last week, Russia stopped issuing visas, and cut off all transport and postal connections between the two countries. Russian authorities have begun gathering lists of schoolchildren with Georgian-sounding names, triggering a wave of fear.

More on the Russia-Georgia crisis here.

Damian P.

Essential listening

A couple of podcast interviews well worth checking out: Theodore Dalrymple on CBC Radio's Ideas, and MST3K star and Rifftrax creator Michael J. Nelson on the Teevee podcast.

That I am a fan of both Dalrymple and Nelson says something about me, but I'm not sure what.

Damian P.

Green Note

Drawn by the lure of press attention and taxpayer financing the environmental movement seems to have become a single issue movement concerned about one cure all treaty. Whether that is true or not, that is the impression that one gets when bombarded by activists demanding for Kyoto.

Meanwhile, CTV reports that the Conservative government will begin introducing its green plan tomorrow. My hopes are that it will contain measures aimed at personal health improvements. Everyday things that people can notice everyday.

If the reports are correct, Canadians can expect to see action on big city mass transit, better air quality indicators, and measures like engine retrofits for school bus engines. The auto industry will probably see some controls as well. Indeed, these measures are not as glamorous as climate change, but they will serve Canadians well.

And anyway, what good is it to agree to something (like the Libs did) that one has no intention of making good on? Personal health measures are practical and in the end Canadians will actually go along with them.

Jon N

Airbus in confusion

Can it be reformed?

Airbus chief executive Christian Streiff has resigned and will be immediately replaced by parent group EADS co-chief executive Louis Gallois, EADS said, adding that Gallois will keep his current role...

Streiff, who took up the Airbus post only three months ago, reportedly submitted his resignation after the EADS board first rejected his plan to revamp Airbus and then approved it only in broad terms, without assuring him the autonomy he sought to draft and implement its details...

EADS shares have been hit hard by successive profit warnings related to delays in the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, and analysts fear both the A350 XWB and A400M military jet [A400M actually a turboprop - MC] programmes may also be facing expensive problems...

Why it may not be reformable: it simply ain't a real business.

Mr Streiff, entrusted with drawing up a "recovery action plan" for resolving the production problems at the A380 superjumbo which have put it two years behind schedule, angered both French and, especially, German political leaders with his plans to transfer A380 production from Hamburg to Toulouse. The German plant is held responsible for the delays which could cost Airbus hundreds of millions in airline compensation.

The Germans, who meet their French counterparts at a summit in Paris on Thursday, have threatened to take a state holding in EADS, with Franz Josef Jung, defence minister, saying at the weekend it would counter French influence. The French state owns 15% while the Germans could take some or all of the 7.5% cars group DaimlerChrysler wants to offload, reducing its own holding to 15%...

More:

Since Streiff announced a reform plan, his blueprint has come under fire as politicians and workers in Germany and France worried about how employees may be affected. Airbus has never cut jobs in its 36-year history. In past slumps, the company managed by asking some employees to work part-time...

Mark C.

The end of civilization as we know it

"France to ban smoking in public".

Cafes, nightclubs and restaurants are to be given until January 2008 to adapt, said [PM] Dominique de Villepin...

What existential angst for Gene Paul ("Mrs Premise..."). And for my philosophical hero, Albert Camus.

Mark C.

Update: Nanny Adolf may yet conquer England too.

Jihad update: Somalia

And you thought it was just "inner struggle".

An Islamic militia that has seized much of southern Somalia declared a holy war Monday against Ethiopia, accusing its neighbor of deploying thousands of troops to prop up the country’s weak, U.N.-backed government.

“I urge all the Somali people to wage holy war against the Ethiopians,” said top Islamic leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, wearing combat fatigues and holding aloft an AK-47 assault rifle.

“Ethiopian troops have intentionally invaded our land,” he said. “We will counter them soon.”..

The Islamic group opposes any outside intervention, and is particularly incensed at any role played by Ethiopia, Somalia’s historic rival.

Somalia’s weak but internationally recognized government publicly denies it is being supported by Ethiopian troops. However, government officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said about 6,000 Ethiopian troops are in Somalia...

I'm really from Missouri on this, what with Darfur and all:

African peacekeepers will be deployed to Somalia within a few weeks or months, Kenya said on Thursday, under a plan opposed by powerful Islamists who threaten the country’s shaky interim government...

The Islamists, which formed as a union of sharia law courts, are vehemently opposed to foreign peacekeepers -- particularly those from bordering nations like Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

Any deployment requires UN Security Council approval...

Mark C.

Damian adds: a good piece on Somalia appeared in The Sunday Telegraph this past weekend.

The weakness of American golf

Not only thrashed at the Ryder Cup, but the US also has just four players in the top fifteen world-wide money earners this year (though eight in the top twenty).

Mark C.

Afstan at "tipping point"

The NATO ISAF commander has a warning.

Afghanistan has reached "tipping point" and desperately needs more troops to help speed up reconstruction and development efforts, a senior British officer has warned.

General David Richards, Nato's top commander (he recently got a fourth star--his UK uniform actually has stars) in the strife-torn country, said Afghans could switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if there were no visible improvements in people's lives over the next year.

Gen Richards, who commands Nato's 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, said he would understand if a lot of ordinary Afghans felt let down by the West and began to support the Taliban again.

He said: "I would understand if a lot of Afghans, down in the south in particular, said to us: 'You're failing year after year in delivering the improvements which you have promised to us'...

"We're at, if you like, a tipping point. I think with a bit more effort and a bit more joined-up approach and spending our money more flexibly and freely with less ties attached to how we do it, then next year could be a lot better, and that's the point at which we are at today."..

I hope the General has some success in talking to Pakistan's President Musharraf but am not confident.

The commander of Nato troops in Afghanistan — with satellite pictures and videos of training camps in Pakistan — will rush to rawalpindi, most probably today (Monday), for talks with President General Pervez Musharraf over the Taliban insurgency and the alleged presence of Mulla Omar in Quetta.

Britain’s Gen David Richards, who last week became commander of foreign troops across Afghanistan, has decided to meet General Musharraf after the captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers allegedly confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service. The information includes an address in Quetta where Mulla Omar, the Taliban leader, has allegedly been hiding.

The Nato Headquarters had confirmed that its commander in Afghanistan is to travel to Pakistan in the coming days to hold “full and frank” discussions with President General Pervez Musharraf over the Taliban insurgency. But, it said, it would not give a date for his visit to rawalpindi for security reasons.

Earlier, ‘The Sunday Times’ claimed the British general will confront Pakistan’s president over his country’s support for the Taliban. Among the evidence amassed is the address of the Taliban leader in a Pakistani city...

Agencies add: The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) dismissed the newspaper’s claim that Richards would “confront” Musharraf about the insurgency and try to persuade him to rein in his military intelligence service, alleged by some to be involved in training Taliban.

“It would be entirely inaccurate to describe the visit to Pakistan as a confrontation,” Nato civilian representative Mark Laity said. “The visit is intended to work at developing cooperation between the two nations on the military side. Not in any sense are we telling Pakistan what to do — that would be entirely inappropriate,” he added...

Mark C.

DiManno: Canadians Lack Grit

[Regarding Afghanistan]...we in the media have focused on the bang-bang narrative...

...war-battered Afghans are immensely brave and resilient. If more Canadians shared their stamina, their spine, we'd be a greater people.

Toronto Star

Michael K

Who to blame?

The Bush Administration bears most of the blame for North Korea testing a nuclear weapon, for concentrating so much on Iraq, and since the "so-called 'war on terror'" has convinced Kim Jong-Il that he needs nuclear weapons to preserve his regime. Or, the Clinton Administration is to blame, for deeply flawed deals meant to keep North Korea from going nuclear. Or the Chinese are to blame, for being North Korea's primary financial and political benefactor. Or the South Koreans are to blame, for the "sunshine policy" of bribery and appeasement.

All of these factors, and many more, may have played some role. But ultimately, Kim Jong-Il has been determined to build his own nuclear arsenal regardless of what the rest of the world does. He knows his people are starving by the thousands, but he doesn't care. He knows the rest of the world threatens sanctions and political pressure to keep him from building nuclear weapons, but he doesn't care. The only thing the North Korean communists care about is survival, and a nuclear deterrent will let Kim keep blackmailing the world with crazed threats, while preventing outside forces from taking him out.

Sanctions, diplomacy, negotiation, appeasement, threats of military action...it's all been tried, and none of it has worked. Ultimately, the only ways Kim will be removed from power are a potentially catastrophic outside invasion, or an uprising from within. The former is a non-starter; the latter could work. From here on out, we should redouble our efforts to support those brave North Koreans who oppose their government, and to get news and information to the most hermetically sealed society on earth.

Damian P.

A nuclear North Korea

When I went to bed last night, most news reports suggested that North Korea would not conduct an underground nuclear test this weekend. That makes this morning's news all the more unsettling - though really not all that surprising:

North Korea came under harsh international criticism after claiming to have carried out a successful underground nuclear weapons test on Monday.

China, a close ally of North Korea, denounced the claimed test as "brazen" and South Korea said it would respond "sternly." The United States said a test would constitute a "provocative act."

South Korea's president said Pyongyang's claimed test "broke the trust of the international community."

President Roh Moo-hyun said it brought "a severe situation that threatens stability on the Korean Peninsula and in northeast Asia."

[...]

"The field of scientific research in the DPRK (North Korea's official name) successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9. ... at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous powerful socialist nation," said North Korea's state news agency, Korean Central News Agency.

CNN's Matthew Chance said that Moscow said Russian equipment in the area had confirmed an underground test.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that the force of the blast was five to 15 kilotons.

Damian P.

Update: the overwhelming consensus among Sydney Morning Herald readers: it's not fair for the United States of Amerikkka to demand that other countries not have nuclear weapons of their own, North Korea's nuclear deterrent will keep Chimpy McHitlerburton and his Zionist masters from invading, and hopefully Iran will get a nuclear deterrent of its own next. (via Tim Blair)

Remember when the left was against nuclear proliferation and thought "Mutual Assured Destruction" was a stupid idea? How times change...

Debunking 9/11 Myths

I have a review of the Popular Mechanics 9/11-conspiracy book posted to Enter Stage Right.

9/11 Conspiracy Smasher has a hilarious video of Morgan Reynolds, a former low-level Bush Administration official, telling a Fox News host that the video of the planes hitting the World Trade Center towers was a "cartoon display." ("There was only one so-called 'real time' film and, um, we don't really understand how they did that.")

Damian P.

Who is who?

Depends upon what you believe.

Does a woman have a "right" to repudiate the freedom to be treated as an equal by society? No, she does not. If mandated democratic governments have passed laws that say that women should be educated, enfranchised and treated the same as men by the law, then that is the judgment of the nation as a whole and should be accepted by all those who reside here...

Of course, individuals do sometimes decline rights that are given to them by government: they may fail to vote, for example. But that is not quite the same as a group systematically opting out of a socially agreed code of political and legal practice. Free societies can only be viable if they are based on mutual [my emphasis - MC] trust and an acceptance that what the populace as a whole has agreed on will become the social rule...

...Either we are all in this together, or Britain [Canada - MC?] will fragment into a conglomeration of mutually uncomprehending communities...

Exactly. To pile on: "but few dared to question such madness..."

Mark C.

RoboCop transferred to Ford Field

DETROIT (CBP) - Officer Alex J. Murphy, popularly known as "RoboCop," has been assigned to the Detroit Lions' starting defence, parent company Omni Consumer Products (NYSE: OCP) announced today.

"RoboCop has proven himself to be a very capable weapon against the drug dealers and crime bosses of Old Detroit," according to OCP vice president Dick Jones. "Some would say that's not enough to prepare him for playing with the Lions, but we hope he can be a capable weapon against the rest of the NFC North."

The winless Lions will use Murphy as a replacement for guard Damien Woody, who was injured in the team's 26-17 loss to Minnesota on Oct. 8. The move comes after general manager Matt Millen unsuccessfully tried to acquire the computer-animated robot shown during Fox NFL telecasts.

Damian P.

Gerard Kennedy: no ordinary guy

Gerard Kennedy began his university education on a on a hockey scholarship and dropped out before he got a degree. Ian Urquardt at The Toronto Star describes him as a prickly, ambitious loner. And, apparently, some members of the Ontario cabinet saw him as intellectually pretentious.

Urquhart suggested problems with cabinet colleagues arose because "He's a politician who's not afraid to speak his mind, a politician who does not preface every utterance with an internal calculation of how it might affect his own future.

I, myself, have had three limited contacts with him all of which were different from what I had expected.

1. I wrote to him with a question when he was director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank. This was before email and, months later, I received a hand-written reply.

2. Years later I saw him on the CBC news as part of a panel of three Ontario MPP's . Whenever the anchor asked a question, he talked over everyone else so that only he could be heard. I sent him an email complaining that this was terrible behaviour for a democratic politician. And, he replied, agreeing with me and apologizing. I think he said that he got so excited he wasn't aware of what he was doing.

3. Someone who lived in his riding was having problems with the elevator in her high rise building. I called his office to see if this was a provincial issue. I spoke to a very friendly woman named Olivia and three days later -- unprompted -- she called me to see how things were going.

I can't help but be impressed.

Michael K

Travers: Harper Dislikes Michaelle Jean

Jimmy Travers claims that Prime Minister Steve doesn't like our governor-general because she is a good looking woman and an immigrant.

Therefore, he's keeping her out of the loop. Which forced her, as commander-in-chief, to arrange a dinner party (for Hamid Karzai) devoted to free discussion about Afghanistan. No cabinet ministers were invited and the anti-war voices were loud.

Jimmy's conclusion? Conservatives should recognize that a modern face is just what a tired monarchy needs.

Update: I've been chastised in the comments for distorting Travers' meaning. And, after re-reading the article, I'll concede that my critics are correct.

According to Harper insiders... Jean, a political neophyte... trespasses on politics.

That's the key issue: someone who had no background in politics and, therefore, shouldn't have been appointed, is screwing up. To me, there seemed to be a subtext about her image itself being non-traditional and therefore problematic. But, I've checked with a pretty good source who told me I was wrong. Again, thanks for the complaints.

Michael K

Haroon: Iggy is Bush's Puppy

And, as such, he can't take votes from Harper.

Harroon Siddiqui describes Mickey Ignatieff as just another US lapdog like Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi and Jose Maria Aznar.

He believes that the key issue in our next election will be our release from Bush's one-dimensional, military solution to the problems in Afghanistan. The majority of Canadians think we can't win and want out or, at least, a change in strategy.

Iggy Pup supported the war on Iraq; he supported the extension of the Afghan mission to 2009 and he supported aggressive means of interrogation. Therefore, says Haroon, he is not what Canadians are looking for. If they want the status quo they'll go with Harper. And with Iggy running the Liberals, Jack Layton will be the only alternative.

Michael K

Afstan: Government getting better at making case

Saw Minister of National Defence O'Connor and Parliamentary Secretary to the PM Kenney on CTV's Question Period (their story at link). Mr O'Connor about the best I've seen him--pointing out his efforts at the recent NATO defence ministers' meeting in Slovenia to get NATO members (i.e. Germany, Italy, France and Spain) to loosen caveats on how their troops are used by the ISAF commander. Craig Oliver not too awful.

Mr Kenney made a point--which the government should have been doing months ago--of emphasizing that ISAF is a UN Security Council mandated operation. He's sharp; no wonder the PM gives him such exposure.

Mr Oliver referred to the fifth anniversary of the "invasion" of Afghanistan. So I sent CTV Newsnet my standard letter, copied to Messrs O'Connor, Kenney, MacKay and Sen. Kenny:

But there was no invasion of Afghanistan.

Before the fall of Kabul, and of most of the rest of Afghanistan, to the insurgent Afghan Northern Alliance in November 2001--and the consequent collapse of the Taliban regime--there were no foreign regular combat formations in Afghanistan. The Northern Alliance did receive air support and assistance from special forces (both US and British); that however is not an invasion. Substantial foreign ground combat forces--including Canadian--only entered the country after the Taliban had been deposed by indigenous Afghan forces, and those foreign troops entered with the agreement of the Northern Alliance.

It is most unfortunate that the mythical "invasion" of Afghanistan has become common currency amongst journalists--and this is no mere semantic quibble. Describing what the US and UK did in Afghanistan as an "invasion" tends to equate those actions in people's minds with the real invasion of Iraq. That equation implicitly and wrongly calls into question the legitimacy of NATO and Coalition actions in Afghanistan, which have been authorized unanimously by the UN Security Council.

Mark C.

Wait a minute...

You mean Terrell Owens is playing in Philadelphia this weekend? Why wasn't I told? You'd this would be getting some media attention.

Damian P.

Democrats say GOP not supporting (Canadian) troops

Using a faked photo, as Captain's Quarters (along with several other bloggers) demonstrates.

Mark C.

Vauxhall USA

GM plans to turn Saturn into a de facto sales channel for Opel, it's European subsidiary - similar to the British Vauxhall brand.

As long as the US-bound cars aren't softened up for "American tastes," this sounds wonderful. (As one Autoblog commenter notes, Ford should be doing the same thing with Mercury.)

Damian P.

Yanks yanked/Joe too?

Stunner. "Listen to the roar, Tigers in four." A-Rod is the lightening rod at WFAN--listen if you want to hear some scorching radio. I'm a Metropolitan man (this year) with no need for a subway.

Distressing that, in Detroit, so few black faces in the crowd.

Mark C.

Update: NY Daily News, "Joe's toast in motown melt". Mr Torre's exit was inevitable at some point; he's had a hell of a run--eleven seasons--for any manager under George Steinbrenner.

News also thinks A-Rod sure to be "shopped".

Upperdate: Joe lives on.

Original hits! Original stars!

A new documentary about K-Tel, airing tonight on CTV, sounds too good to pass up:

K-Tel albums were compilation discs -- many of them boasting "24 original hits" and "24 original stars" -- which had their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.

K-Tel callously edited and faded out songs early, to fit in as many tunes as possible on barely round pieces of ultra-cheap vinyl. But here's a personal admission -- back when I was a kid buying K-Tel albums, I didn't know the tunes had been chopped. To this day, the "regular" versions of some classic songs from the '70s seem hideously long to me.

K-Tel albums were omnipresent not only in discount stores, drugstores and department stores, but in oft-repeated bullet-to-the-brain TV commercials.

The K-Tel era was coming to a close by the time I started getting interested in music, so I only remember owning two K-Tel albums: Hot Tracks and Masters of Metal.

Damian P.

World university rankings

Canada beats Germany, France, but not Australia. Queen's (which I once attended) must be rotting its socks.

Montreal's McGill University, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver each cracked the top 50 of an annual list compiled by The Times of London [sic].

McGill took top place among Canada's boycott at 21st, three spots higher than last year. University of Toronto was 27th, up two, while University of British Columbia tumbled 12 spots to finish in a tie for 50th.

Harvard University maintained its No.1 ranking from a year earlier, edging out the British duo of Cambridge and Oxford.

In a list dominated by American and British schools, Canada had more top-50 universities than France and Japan, two each, but less than Australia, which had seven...

Information on all top 200 universities — including the University of Alberta (133), McMaster University (155), Queen's University (176) and the University of Montreal (181) — is available at http://www.topboycott.com...

Mark C.

"UN rights council fails to agree on anything"

Perfect headline, in the Ottawa Citizen, but sadly not online. This one is: "UN: Rights Council Disappoints Again". Did anyone really, really expect anything different? Apparently "Canada's New Government" did since they were "pleased" to be elected the the new, not-improved, body.

More headlines here.

Mark C.

Jailbait music

Inspired by the Mark Foley scandal, Andrew Sullivan is looking for popular songs in which the object of the singer's affection is under 18. We have a winner.

The video is up at YouTube, of course. God, I miss hair metal.

Damian P.

The blood libel never dies

A Saudi newspaper, Al-Madina, argues that current events "prove" the authenticity of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Certain followers of the Socialist Workers Party feel the same way.

Damian P.

Fox News turns 10

Cathy Seipp has a piece about the tenth anniversary of the news channel lefties love to hate.

Fox News finally became available in Canada a couple of years ago, and while I'm happy to have another alternative news source, I have to say I'm underwhelmed. I have no problem with the network's political bias - which is certainly no worse than, say, CBC Newsworld - but I'm no fan of the flashy graphics, bombastic music and other "tabloid" touches. Even CNN and MSNBC seem downright restrained, compared to Fox. (Teevee had a good piece about it back in 2003.)

Damian P.

Single-tier (which actually ain't) health care is unsustainable

An article by the director of health, pharmaceutical and insurance policy research at The Fraser Institute. Key conclusions:

Despite many warnings, governments try in vain to contain health costs by restricting access to medical care. This has caused long waits for medical services; comparably fewer health professionals and high tech equipment; deteriorating hospital facilities; the withdrawal of public insurance coverage for previously insured medical goods and services; and the delay, or outright refusal to provide public insurance coverage for new treatments and technologies that are available in other countries.

Governments should instead require patients to make co-payments to encourage more responsible use of tax funded health care services.

They should acknowledge patients’ right to pay privately (through private insurance or out of pocket) for all types of medical services including those provided by hospitals and physicians.

Providers should also be allowed to charge extra fees directly to patients above the public health insurance reimbursement level and to receive payment for their services from any insurer whether public or private.

Both of these policies would take financial pressure off tax-funded health care. In addition, both for-profit and private non-profit health providers should compete for the delivery of publicly insured health services. Competition produces efficiencies that can reduce costs. All of these policies are increasingly being used to great benefit in other countries with universal health insurance systems...

If you think all the federal pressure on the provinces has achieved much, I suggest you read: "Waiting time vow delays key surgeries, MDs say...Other queues swell as funds are focused on Ottawa's priorities".

As to tiers and the "dirty little secret", see this.

Mark C.

The first Straw in questioning multiculturalism and Muslims

A senior Labour cabinet minister does not like talking to Muslim women wearing full veils. Some Muslims are upset.

Jack Straw provoked anger yesterday by suggesting that community relations would be helped if Muslim women did not wear full veils.

The Leader of the Commons disclosed that for the past year he had been asking women who visited his constituency office to remove their veils so that he could see them face-to-face. He always made sure that he was accompanied by a female member of staff and so far no constituent had refused to lift her veil.

Mr Straw said that wearing the full veil was bound to make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult, as it could be seen "as a visible statement of separation and difference". He had felt "uncomfortable" whenever a woman had worn one in his Blackburn constituency office.

A prominent Muslim scholar described his comments as "untimely" and giving out "a mixed message".

Sheik Ibrahim Nogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "On the one hand he says this is a free country. On the other, he is denying that free choice to a woman who chooses to wear the veil.

"Does Mr Straw mean that people should give up certain cultural and religious customs and practices simply because a vast majority of the country do not share them?

"That is calling for assimilation. That is saying that one culture or one way of life is superior to another.

"If we are truly multicultural, we have to accept that there will be women who want to dress in this way."..

Dr Reefat Drabu, the chairman of the social and family affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: "If Mr Straw thinks this is going to break down barriers, it isn't. If anything, it is going to alienate Muslim women and be a catalyst for more of them to wear the veil and prove a point."

She added: "If you are trying to build bridges, you need to listen to what Muslims are saying. The problems that alienate women are to do with foreign policy [my emphasis - MC] and no one seems to take any notice of that...

So, once again it's all about Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Lebanon, or Palestine...maybe soon, Darfur (they shoot peacekeepers, don't they?). One damn thing or another to get alienated about in the country of one's birth (for many).

(Canada received a copy of Sudan's letter threatening those involved in discussing a UN Darfur force.)

Video of Mr Straw here.

In a later story senior Tory and Liberal MPs comment:

Oliver Letwin, the Conservative policy chief, accused the Commons leader of espousing a “dangerous doctrine” while Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat party chairman, said his remarks were “insensitive and surprising”.

Maggie better start looking to see if Harrods carries burqas.

And moderate Muslims have been found:

...Dr Daud Abdullah, of the Muslim Council of Britain, was more supportive.

“This (the veil) does cause some discomfort to non-Muslims. One can understand this,” he said.

Baroness Uddin, the Muslim Labour peer, said it was important to have a debate on the issue.

“I think it’s about human rights on both sides - Jack’s right to say and the women’s right to wear what they please,” she said.

More here from Little Green Footballs (h/t to Sandy P).

Mark C.

GOP TF'ed

ABC News says three more Congressional pages - all under eighteen years of age at the time - have accused Mark Foley of engaging in sexually explicit online chats with them.

Even if some of the messages were part of a "prank," as Matt Drudge has reported (ABC News denies this), Foley's behavior was grossly unacceptable and hypocritical. Now the issue is what the GOP congressional leadership knew - and Republican internal polling shows potentially catastrophic election results for the party.

Damian P.

Update: I dare you to read this and not groan.

The revolution is out of money

The French left-wing daily Libération is in serious financial trouble - and going cap in hand to the hated capitalists to keep the paper going.

Damian P.

Voted off my island

[originally posted to The VHS Chronicles]

Around twenty minutes into last night's episode of Survivor: Cook Islands, it finally dawned on me: I just wasn't enjoying the show anymore. I've given up on dull seasons of Survivor before, but this is the second or third in a row I haven't bothered watching to the finish, and I think I'm done for good.

Back in 2000, I was reluctant to get into Survivor in the first place - but I saw an episode at my then-girlfriend's house, and I was hooked. Since then, it's been a regular part of my Thursday-night routine - "comfort food," as a panelist on the TV Guide podcast described it. But gimmicks like "exile island," haven't been enough to keep the show fresh. This season, the producers came up with the intriguing and controversial idea of dividing the teams up by ethnicity, but they lost their nerve and abandoned it after just two weeks.

Plus, Survivor is now up against the two best comedies on television - My Name is Earl and The Office - on NBC. But the biggest problem is that Survivor just isn't the cultural phenomenon it used to be. It's the rare show which is actually enhanced by everyone else watching it and talking about it, and while the ratings are still good - though taking a massive hit from Ugly Betty - people just don't seem to be discussing and debating it like they used to. Now it's just another reality show, like the vastly superior Amazing Race. (American Idol - and, up here, Canadian Idol - has overtaken Survivor as the cultural phenomenon of the moment.)

Survivor is still an established brand name, and production costs must still be relatively low, so I don't think the show will disappear anytime soon. But don't be surprised if CBS moves it away from Thursday night in a few years.

Damian P.

Pay cut for the wounded

When injured Canadian soldiers are removed from Afghanistan, they lose the additional pay and benefits they recieve for serving in a dangerous area - no matter how severe their injuries:

Canadian soldiers injured in Afghanistan are returning home to find they have been cut off from the extra danger pay they received serving in Kandahar.

The Department of National Defence says its pay-and-benefits policy dictates even injured soldiers lose the special allowances they receive for fighting in danger zones.

Canadian Forces members are eligible for extra pay for risk, hardship and foreign service, or a combination of all three, as is the case currently in Afghanistan.

A corporal on his second rotation in Kandahar, for instance, receives an additional $2,111 a month on top of a salary that ranges from $4,069 to $5,190. The allowances are tax-free and base salary is also tax-exempt up to $6,647 on risky missions.

But once a soldier is injured and leaves Afghanistan, the additional benefits end and his or her paycheque returns to its previous level.

DND spokesman John Knoll says there is a discretionary extension to allowances for up to 25 days while the injured soldier is in transit or being treated out of country at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for instance. But once in Canada, the benefits end.

More here. I don't think any Canadian, no matter how fiscally conservative, would mind seeing this policy changed - sooner rather than later.

Damian P.

update: Gen. Rick Hillier says the policy is being reviewed.

Senate Committee: More money for CF, join BMD, no Navy icebreakers

Thank goodness the Conservatives don't control the Senate. Latest report by the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence (Executive Summary here):

Canada should not waste military resources on defending the Arctic, but should sign on to the U.S. ballistic missile defence program and double the amount of money it gives for foreign aid, a Senate defence committee report released Thursday says.

The senators also say the Defence Department should get special treatment, suggesting that its minister be empowered to spend up to $500 million on equipment without having to go through the long process of cabinet approval.

Military spending is far too low, the report concludes, saying the projected budget of $20 billion by 2012 is "at least $5-billion short and more probably $15-billion short."

On missile defence, the report criticizes the decision by former prime minister Paul Martin to reject Canadian participation in the program.

"The government should not make the mistake that the last government made by refusing to support the United States in this project."

The report concludes that an effective anti-missile system has the potential to save "hundreds of thousands of Canadian lives."..

"If there is the tiniest chance that it could [work], why would we turn up our noses at the opportunity to be a partner in this project?"

No threat in Arctic: report

The report also focuses on the Arctic and rejects the use of the military as the primary tool to defend the area and criticizes the government's plan to build three Canadian Forces icebreakers...

Instead, defence of the Arctic should be handled primarily by other agencies, including the Canadian Coast Guard, which should be armed, suggested the report.

The report also urges Ottawa to abandon military bases which have outlived their usefulness, naming Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador...

Arming the Coast Guard will be very contentious as its members do not want to be armed. But their vessels already act as platforms to carry armed Fishery Officers and RCMP members; that should be sufficient. Besides which civilian government vessels are perfectly capable, in international legal terms, of asserting sovereignty in Arctic straits. Give the CCG new, more Arctic-capable icebreakers--it badly needs new vessels anyway.

Executive Summary is here; full text, "MANAGING TURMOIL: The Need to Upgrade Canadian Foreign Aid and Military Strength to Deal with Massive Change", available here.

More in Globe story:

The wide-ranging 323-page report doesn't pull any punches, calling Canada's armed forces a “one-trick pony” that is ill-equipped to deal with multiple threats...

“The blueprint currently laid out by the Government of Canada – while it does give a welcome boost to defence spending after decades of neglect – will not give the Canadian Forces the capacity to deploy ground troops to two major assignments at the same time,” the report states.

“That is why – with 2,500 troops in Afghanistan– the government could not make any kind of substantial commitment to Lebanon or Darfur even if it wished to, and why it would have to turn somersaults to adjust personnel allocation if a major threat to Canada were to emerge at home or somewhere else abroad.”..

Mark C.

"Today's Idiocy"

Another good one from Norman's Spectator:

"Judge asks about racism in Air-India crash probe" (Globe)

It's hard not to share the view of victims' families that "if it had been an Air Canada plane and Anglo-Saxons, things would have been different," commissioner John Major said during questioning of former Ontario premier Bob Rae.

Memo to John Major. Right. For starters, Sikh terrorists would probably not have blown up the plane

Mark C.

The Ayatollah saw a need for the bomb

The current government is hastily trying to cover it up.

A forgotten letter in which the founder of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, cited a need for nuclear weapons has stoked a debate over whether to negotiate with the West and raised questions about Iran’s nuclear intentions today.

Within hours after the letter appeared Friday on the Web site of the news agency ILNA, the word “nuclear” was removed, apparently after a call from the Iranian National Security Council.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly insisted that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful, sharply criticized the release of the letter. “Those who think they can weaken the will of the people for construction and development by questioning their values will fail,” he said Sunday, “and they only show their lack of wisdom and commitment.”..

More reason to keep planning.

Mark C.

Building a new Afghanistan

The work of Canadian and allied soldiers in Afghanistan is indispensible, but it's ultimately up to Afghanis themselves to bring their country back from the dead. Stories like this give me hope.

Damian P.

Afstan: UN peacekeeping chief applauds Canada's military role

From the front page of the Ottawa Citizen--perhaps Mr Layton, Ms. Black, Ms McDonough and assorted Liberal leadership candidates may see this:

The chief of United Nations peacekeeping operations yesterday praised Canada for deploying a sizable force to Afghanistan, saying the entire NATO deployment is providing "very important" help to the world body's work in that country.

Making the comments during a briefing on the UN's own burgeoning peacekeeping commitments around the world, Jean-Marie Guehenno effectively endorsed the arguments Prime Minister Stephen Harper made in his recent UN address on why Canada had intervened in Afghanistan.

"Canada helps us through the mission in Afghanistan, and we think it is very important that NATO is a solid and powerful force (there)," Mr. Guehenno said. "It is an essential element if one wants to maintain the credibility of the political process in Afghanistan. It is essential to have a robust NATO in Afghanistan."

Among the criticisms in Canada of the deployment to Afghanistan have been calls for Canadian troops to be used in more traditional peacekeeping roles around the world.

But Mr. Guehenno, who called the briefing to highlight how the UN is facing one of the biggest surges in its global peacekeeping commitments in a decade, welcomed Canada's decision to add tanks [my emphasis - MC] and about 200 more troops to the 2,300-strong Canadian contingent. He also welcomed other just-announced increases to the NATO force, which is currently 20,000 strong.

"We are very happy to see the reinforcement," he said. "Canada has been a part of that, and we are grateful."..

Mark C.

England expects every man to do his duty...

...unless it involves guarding Israelis. (via USS Neverdock)

Damian P.

Back to Africa

After decades of civil war and dictatorship, Liberia's entrepreneurs and educated classes are returning home to rebuild their country.

Damian P.

Next stop: Algeria

Glenn and Helen - no last names necessary - interviewed Michael Totten for their podcast earlier this week. He has some very interesting comments about his upcoming trip to Algeria, where the people voted the Islamists into power in 1992 - in an election subsequently annulled by the military - and turned strongly against them after a brutal civil war.

Damian P.

Irony on Darfur.

Until recently, it was striking how little the élites of nearby Islamic capitals like Khartoum, Rabat, and Cairo knew or cared about the slaughter of Muslims in Darfur. It almost made their denunciations of civilian deaths in Iraq and Lebanon seem like selective outrage.

That has begun to change, though not the way one might expect. Last month, an Egyptian lawyer explained to the Times why Muslim sentiment is so inflamed against the West. “The people embrace their Arab-Muslim identity and feel an injustice is done upon them in more than one place—Iraq, Palestine, Darfur, Afghanistan, Lebanon,” he said. Darfur, where an Arab government unleashed Arab militias to commit massacres against Muslim African farmers, has joined the growing list of Arab grievances—against the West.

The New Yorker

Michael K

A plausible outline for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities

Some analysis of what would need to be done, and some earlier reporting on plans. How plausible are the politics?

While the multiplicity of sites makes drawing up a comprehensive target list more challenging, U.S. and Israel officials also suggest there are positive aspects to this. Not every nuclear-related site need be struck to hobble any nascent nuclear weapons program. The goal would be to select a few choke points...

As the system expands or changes over time, additional small-scale attacks could further delay the effort, whenever it approaches a critical stage of development. While Israeli officials do not believe an Iranian nuclear weapons program can be stopped, they are convinced it could be slowed by years with the idea that time, negotiations, sanctions and perhaps changes in government could alter the desire to arm...

A senior U.S. Air Force officer describes the problem of finding those choke points as an involved process that includes distinguishing commercial nuclear facilities from those with military applications. "There are a lot of sites and you have to segregate them." Nonetheless, "it's not that difficult," he says...

...With the aid of U.S. intelligence (and information garnered from Russian sources and Iran's neighbors), he contends that evidence of plutonium, centrifuge use, cooling and power generation/transmission will provide the proper targeting signatures for "a couple of handfuls of attacks--less than a dozen" to shut down Iranian nuclear progress for years. "Where does the electrical power go in and out, and how do those people communicate with the outside world?"

U.S. officials have estimated there are as many as 70 Iranian nuclear sites, of which a minimum of 15 would have to be attacked...

...U.S. weapons like the GBU-28 can penetrate perhaps 30 ft. of hardened materials or 100 ft. of earth. But Iranian facilities are reportedly buried 100-200 ft. below the surface with alternating layers of earth and cement to absorb the impact of penetrating bombs. There are satellite pictures of the Natanz nuclear facility in north central Iran that show two large centrifuge buildings being buried under several yards of reinforced concrete and at least 75 ft. of earth...

...The attacker, be it the U.S. or Israel, can't afford to be condemned internationally for spreading contamination. They also must avoid collateral and environmental damage and loss of life. The attackers must be able to say they had tried all the political and diplomatic options.

Good luck regarding the last paragraph, especially amongst Muslims.

For details on bunker busters, read on.

Mark C.

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The U.S. Defense Dept. is investing heavily--much of it classified--to counter hard and deeply buried targets. Some assessments now suggest a number of weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD)-related sites are positioned under more than 20 meters of heavily reinforced concrete and layers of dirt and sand...

What is necessary is to identify and select targets whose destruction--or "functional defeat"--will cause maximum disruption. Also crucial is the weapons capability to engage deeply buried targets effectively.

The principal challenge of destroying an underground target, according to U.S. weapons experts, is maintaining a weapon's integrity through a violent penetration and timing the weapon's explosion accurately. Layers of concrete and soil place extraordinary stresses on weapons. Critical components, such as fuzes and weapons casings, must be able to withstand high levels of axial and lateral acceleration, in the order of up to 10,000g or more...

The Pentagon believes there is no such thing as "overkill" when it comes to a WMD site. It is looking at both conventional munitions and low-yield nuclear weapons--despite the political implications--perhaps reflecting an undercurrent of skepticism about whether conventional munitions can do the job...

Short of a nuclear detonation, though, the Pentagon will be testing the theory next year of whether bigger and heavier is indeed better for penetrators. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) is a behemoth of a bomb, weighing almost 30,000 lb. It is designed to "overwhelm target characterization uncertainties," according to program officials...

With 5,300 lb. of explosive material, MOP will pack more than 10 times the explosive punch of its BLU-109 penetrator predecessor, according to Bob Hastie, DTRA's program manager. Optimum penetrating distance is classified, but some analysts say it is as much as 200 ft. through reinforced concrete and soil or sand. "The most important thing is to make sure the weapon survives the penetration event," Hastie says...

Another Newfoundlander falls

One of two Canadian soldiers killed by an Afghan suicide bomber, Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam, came from South Branch in Newfoundland's beautiful Codroy Valley. (The other, Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell, was from Ontario.) Everyone knows everyone in these small communities, so the sense of loss and devastation must be overwhelming.

Sgt. Gillam and Cpl. Mitchell were killed while guarding a road construction project. More evidence, unfortunately, that reconstruction and combat in that battered country are barely distinguishable.

Damian P.

Afstan: The Frist fracas/"Exit strategy"

"Senate leader says his comments about bringing Taliban into government were taken out of context." Note the mention of Minister of National Defence O'Connor; Tom Regan, who contributes to the Christian Science Monitor's "Terrorism & Security: A daily update" (at left on "World" page), earlier pays Canada a lot of attention here.

Via MediaRight.ca

Mark C.

Update: NATO's supreme commander gives the "exit strategy" for Afstan:

NATO's top military commander said yesterday the U.S. exit strategy from Afghanistan depends on the effectiveness of reconstruction and aid, more so than the number of troops.

"Afghanistan will not be resolved by military means," said U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, who commands the Western alliance.

"We are always looking for more capability, more equipment, but generally speaking, the troop strength under the current threat envelope is adequate," Gen. Jones said.

"The real challenge is how well the reconstruction mission and the international aid mission is focused," he told the Council on Foreign Relations. "And fundamentally, this is the exit strategy for Afghanistan."

The general's statement came amid a growing recognition in Washington that defeating the Taliban is not just a question of putting more boots on the ground.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Tuesday stated that victory in Afghanistan would not happen until Afghan and international officials wooed more tribal leaders away from the Taliban and into the political process...

Canada's Big Three/Ontario's "Muscle Car Premier"

In September: GM, Toyota, Honda. Compare Civic sales with all Ford and Chrysler cars. Grim.

Toyota Canada Inc. and Honda Canada Inc. jumped into the second and third spots ahead of DaimlerChrysler Canada Ltd. and Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd., marking the first time both Japan-based companies have been in the top three. Note in "Update's" first link that China is predicted to become the world's third largest auto producer this year.

Traditional leader General Motors of Canada Ltd. still tops the rankings with an 8-per-cent rise last month, but combined market share for the world's largest auto maker, Chrysler and Ford fell to less than 50 per cent in Canada last month for just the second time...

Canadians bought a record 7,586 compact Civic cars last month.

That's more than twice as many Civics as Chrysler's total passenger car sales of 3,775 and more than Ford's car total of 4,154...

The above provides context for the astounding hypocrisy (and Alberta-bashing) of Camaro Dalton.

Asked about plans by federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose to meet with reps of the auto industry to discuss what they can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, McGuinty sided with the auto industry.

Yep, you heard right. A tough-talking Liberal leaped to the defence of big business to protect an industry from a bunch of tree-hugging, eco-warrior Tories.

"One thing we will not abide is any effort on the part of the national government to unduly impose greenhouse gas emission reductions on the province of Ontario at the expense of our auto sector," McGuinty said...

He said Ambrose should sit down with people from the oil and gas sector in Western Canada to address climate change...

...he's the Muscle Car Premier, too.

Just a few short weeks ago, he and then economic development Minister Joe Cordiano were at the GM plant in Oshawa, pegging the future of the industry in this province on the sleek back of the new Camaro.

Mark C.

Update: I somehow doubt this is the real threat from China

Upperdate: "Renault and GM Not Commenting on Report Alliance Talks Over".

What is the exit strategy?

From Bosnia (or Kosovo), that is. Canada simply withdrew its troops from Bosnia when we thought we'd done enough (from Kosovo too).

Once you do get involved in some kind of nation-building capacity, you cannot simply quit when the going gets tough -- temp