War on Terror and Gulf War II Poetry

OpinionJournal.com has a link to poetry that's related to the War On Terror and Gulf War II. Here are a few notables:

Rob Rice knows just where he stands. This is his "Upon the War in Iraq":

The time has come for thunderbolts
Of steel from the sky.
It is now right that murderers
Instead of children, die.
They have forged chains and thumbscrews while
We have made pleas and threats.
The portraits of the killer smile
But he must pay his debts.

A mountainside is split in two,
His coward legions fall.
His shackled cities fade from view
Beneath a smoky pall.
Armored treads sound in the street,
The tanks are not his own.
He has bid many to be slain.
He'll face his death alone.

Cineas told Pyrrhus that
'Rome has a thousand heads.'
And Rome was a republic, strong
After that king was dead.
The tyrant butchers live in fear
And we go on and on.
A century shall find us here
And every tyrant gone.

Our carriers loom off his coast.
Our bombers fill his skies.
And brave, skilled men with stealthy tread
Prepare his grim surprise.
Grant, and Sherman, Patton, Greene
Have taught us to make war.
We now pick up their legacy
And free the world once more.

On Oct. 7, 2001, the bombs began falling in Afghanistan, whose brutal, barbaric terrorist regime harbored al Qaeda. Tabitha Szalapski wrote this poem this year, but it expresses well the challenge America faced in the autumn of 2001:

"War is hell," while not quite true,
Expresses how we feel;
And, yet, to war we go anew
To quell a threat that's real.

We relish not the death and pain,
The loss of our dear sons;
But when the tyrants' terrors reign:
"Arise, courageous ones!"

Arise, rush forward to the fight,
Lift up sweet freedom's call--
If no one stands for what is right,
Oppression conquers all.

So--to the battle-line and wreak
Destruction swift and sure.
It is not power that we seek,
But life--for all--secure.

Tom Hedgecock contributes "America's Soul":

The bagpipe plays its somber trill through the last strains of "Amazing Grace",
As New York's finest is gently lowered, to his final resting place,
The tears aren't dry and will flow again as the rites begin anew,
But from these mournings, there brings resolve, which will see this nation through.

The Twin Towers survived their mortal blows as both struggled not to fall,
But as one twin fell and skyward looked as if beckoning to call,
For it would not be the same with one twin left, in that skyline for all to see,
And soon the second came crashing down to where a memorial soon will be.

The memorial will list the names of those who gave their last full measure,
For they sacrificed their lives for others and thus increased our nations treasure,
It will be there to honor all who answered duties call just then,
For as the workers were rushing out, America's heroes were rushing in.

The Pentagon, where soldiers serve, was terror's next objective,
Steering the plane through death-throes course to unleash their grim invective,
They wreaked their havoc at the citadel where now planning does evolve,
In the name of fallen comrades their fate's been sealed, with steely-eyed resolve.

As an aircraft flew PA's uncharted course, a plan soon came to be,
If Americans must die, it would not be in vain; that's why freedom isn't free,
These heroes then fought back the terror, thus lessening the nation's toll,
And forever their battle cry will be, it's time to go, "Let's roll."

As witnesses to this martial play we know horrific deeds were done,
Yes bitter blows were struck that day; the ironic date was Nine-One-One,
The shocking disbelief our nation felt, was hard to rationalize,
But when knocked down, we do get up; soon the world would realize.

We dusted off our soot drenched clothes and began our work anew,
As our enemies began to ponder just, what would this colossus do?
With patience and devotion we planned to strategically reply,
For history's lessons taught us to prepare, and soon our enemy would die.

The true leaders of the world then met, to collate what would become,
A united front to fight a foe, who used terror as a gun,
We're now lead by those who know the price and are willing to pay it too,
To eradicate the world from terror and the patience to see it through.

Yes when terror struck we were not prepared and paid an horrific price,
But as a tribute to those who gave their all and made the ultimate sacrifice,
We have been strengthened and we have united to reach the final goal,
And since 9-11 the whole world now knows, the depth of "America's Soul."

There's a lot of good stuff there so I suggest you check it out.

Somewhat of a technical question

I don't know if anyone has noticed but we post the latest comments on the sidebar using an RSS feed. Nothing interesting in that I know but the title for each post is something like 'Thread: 107521179361365034. Post by Bob (142.176.58.189)'.

My question is does it bother anyone that the posters IP address is in the title?

This seems like a small security risk to me but to tell you the truth pulling up the RSS feed for any Haloscan user will give you the same thing so maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Anyways, if this concerns anyone let me know and I'll try and find another RSS viewer that lets me hide the titles.

Surprise! Fooled you again!

It seems that the Liberal Party has once again pulled another one on the Canadian electorate:

Prime Minister Paul Martin's shipping empire had business dealings with Ottawa that were a thousand times more vast than the Liberal government previously admitted, totalling $161-million over the past 11 years, newly released records show.

Although the government reported to Parliament a year ago that companies Mr. Martin owned did only $137,000 worth of federal business in the past decade, they admitted yesterday that the real amount was far more, including $46-million in contracts issued when Mr. Martin was finance minister.

Now quite seriously, does this surprise any of you? Gun registry over-runs, a mistake. Human Resources loses $1 billion dollars, another mistake. Someone makes a type-o that underestimates the governments dealings with the P.M.'s companies by $161 million. Another mistake?

In all honesty, the Liberals must be on to something. What would that something be? That the Canadian people have gone off their med's that's what! Either that or they've learned that all of Canada's public servants missed that class in grade 1 where you were told to 'carry...' the zeros.

As well:

"Lookit, I'm out of the company. But as far as I'm concerned, my dealings are an open book. That document is without a doubt the best document in terms of that involvement that could be created," he said.

If the document he refers to is anything like the last... well Canada you get what you deserve.

And before I'm done with this how is transferring ownership of a company to your sons removing any conflict of interest? This has to be explained to me because I'm obviously missing something.

Hold on, I'm not done yet. Moving his companies headquarters offshore to avoid Canadian taxes is bad enough but to think over 50% of Canadians think he is suited to lead the country quite simply blows my mind away.

Arg!

The famous list

Courtesy of MEMRI here is the purported list of people and organizations Saddam tried to buy off:

Canada: Arthur Millholland, president and CEO of the Calgary-based Oilexco company, received 1 million barrels of oil.

United States: Samir Vincent received 10.5 million barrels. In 2000, Vincent, an Iraqi-born American citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 1958, organized a delegation of Iraqi religious leaders to visit the U.S. and meet with former president Jimmy Carter. Shaker Al-Khafaji,the pro-Saddam chairman of the 17th conference of Iraqi expatriates, received 1 million barrels.

Great Britain: George Galloway received 1 million barrels. Fawwaz Zreiqat received 1 million barrels. Zreiqat also appears in the Jordanian section as having received 6 million barrels. The Mujahideen Khalq [3] in Britain received 1 million barrels.

France: The French-Arab Friendship Association received 15.1 million barrels. Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua received 12 million barrels. [4] Patrick Maugein of the Trafigura company received 25 million barrels. Michel Grimard, founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club, received 17.1 million barrels.

Switzerland: Glenco Re, the largest commodity trader in Switzerland, received 12 million barrels. Taurus, which has been associated with Iraq for 20 years and was the first company to renew its business with Iraq after the fall of Saddam, received 1 million barrels. Petrogas, which is listed under three sub-companies – Petrogas Services, Petrogas Distribution, and Petrogas Resources - and is associated withthe Russian company Rosneftegazetroy, received 1 million barrels. Alcon, listed in Lichtenstein and associated with larger oil companies, received 1 million barrels. Finar Holdings, which is listed in Lugano, Switzerland, and is under liquidation, received 1 million barrels.

Italy: The Italian Petrol Union received 1 million barrels.West Petrol, an Italian company that trades crude oil and oil products, received 1 million barrels. Roberto Formigoni, possibly the president of Lombardia, received 1 million barrels. Salvatore Nicotra, a former NATO pilot who became an oil merchant, received 1 million barrels.

Spain: Basem Qaqish, a member of the Spanish Committee for the Defense of the Arab Cause, received 1 million barrels. Ali Ballout, a pro-Saddam Lebanese journalist, received 1 million barrels. Javier Robert received 1 million barrels.

Yugoslavia: Four Yugoslav political parties received vouchers: the Yugoslav Left party received 9.5 million barrels. The Socialist Party received 1 million barrels. The Italian Party received 1 million barrels. A nother party, whose name in exact transliteration is "kokstuntsha" – possibly Kostunica's party – received 1 million barrels.

Other political parties: The Romanian Labor Party received 5.5 million barrels. The Party of the Hungarian Interest received 4.7 million barrels. The Bulgarian Socialist Party received 1 2 million barrels. The Slovakian Communist Party received 1 million barrels.

Austria: The Arab-Austrian Society received 1 million barrels.

Brazil: The 8th of October Movement, a Brazilian Communist group, received 4.5 million barrels. Fuwad Sirhan received 10 million barrels.

Egypt: Khaled Gamal Abd Al-Nasser, son of the late Egyptian president, received 16.6 million barrels. 'Imad Al-Galda, a businessman and a member of the Egyptian parliament from President Mubarak's National Democratic Party, received 14 million barrels. Abd Al-Azim Mannaf, [5] editor of the Sout Al-Arab newspaper, received 6 million barrels. Muhammad Hilmi, editor of the Egyptian paper Sahwat Misr, [6] received an undisclosed number of barrels. The United Arab Company received 6 million barrels. The Nile and Euphrates Company received 3 million barrels. The Al-Multaqa Foundation for Press and Publication received 1 million barrels. [7]

Libya: Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem received 1 million barrels.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Chad's foreign minister received 1 million barrels. [8] Four South Africans are listed: Tokyo Saxville received 4 million barrels. Montega received 4 million barrels. Both are associated with the African National Party.

Palestinians: The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) received 4 million barrels. The PLO Political Bureau received 5 million barrels. Abu Al-Abbas received 11.5 million barrels. Abdallah Al-Horani received 8 million barrels. The PFLP received 5 million barrels. Wafa Tawfiq Al-Sayegh received 4 million barrels.

Oman: The Al-Shanfari group received 5 million barrels.

Syria: Farras Mustafa Tlass, the son of Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, received 6 million barrels. 'Audh Amourah received18 million barrels. Ghassan Zakariya received 6 million barrels. Anwar Al-Aqqad received 2 million barrels. Hamida Na'Na', the owner of the Al-Wafaq Al-Arabi periodical, received 1 million barrels.

Lebanon: The son of Lebanese President Emil Lahoud received 4.5 million barrels. Former MP Najjah Wakim received 3 million barrels. Nasserist Party head Osama M'arouf received 3 million barrels. National Arabic Club Chairman Faisal Darnika received 3 million barrels.

Jordan: Former Islamist MP and head of the Engineers Union Leith Shbeilat [9] received 15.5 million barrels. Former MP and Jordanian Writers Union head Fakhri Qi'war received 6 million barrels. [10] Former Jordanian chief of staff Mashhour Haditha received 1 million barrels. Former MP Toujan Al-Faisal received 3 million barrels. [11] The Jordanian Ministry of Energy received 5 million barrels. Muhammad Saleh Al-Horani, the Amman Stock Exchange head and former Minister of Supplies, received 4 million barrels. Lawyer Wamidth Hussein Al-Majali received 6 million barrels. [12]

Qatar: Qatari Horseracing Association Chairman Hamad bin Ali Aal Thani received 14 million barrels. Gulf Petroleum received 2 million barrels.

The Indian Congress Party received 1 million barrels.

Indonesia: Indonesian President Megawati received 1 million barrels as "the daughter of President Sukarno," and 1 million barrels as Megawati.

Myanmar: Myanmar's Forestry Minister received 1 million barrels.

Ukraine: The Social Democratic Party received 1 million barrels. The Communist Party received 6 million barrels. The Socialist Party received 1 million barrels. The FTD oil company received 1 million barrels, as did other Ukrainian companies.

Belarus: The Liberal Party received 1 million barrels. The Communist Party received 1 ton [sic] of oil. The director of the Belarussian president's office received 1 million barrels.

Russia: The Russian state itself received 1,366,000,000 barrels. The list also included the following:

Companies belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party received 79.8 million barrels - t he list notes the name of party president Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The Russian Communist Party received 1 million barrels. The Lukoil company received 63 million barrels. The Russneft company received 35.5 million barrels. Vladimir Putin's Peace and Unity Party received 34 million barrels - the list notes the name of party chairwoman Saji Umalatova. The Gazprom company received 26 million barrels. The Soyuzneftgaz company received 25.5 million barrels - t he list notes the name Shafrannik. The Moscow Oil Company received 25.1 million barrels. The Onako company received 22.2 million barrels. The Sidanco company received 21.2 million barrels. The Russian Association for Solidarity with Iraq received 12.5 million barrels. The Ural Invest company received 8.5 million barrels. Russneft Gazexport received 12.5 million barrels. The Transneft company received 9 million barrels. The Sibneft company received 8.1 million barrels. The Stroyneftgaz company received 6 million barrels. The Russian Committee for Solidarity with the People of Iraq received 6.5 million barrels - the list notes the name of committee chairman Rudasev. The Russian Orthodox Church received 5 million barrels. The Moscow Science Academy received 3.5 million barrels. The Chechnya Administration received 2 million barrels. T he National Democratic Party received 2 million barrels. The Nordwest group received 2 million barrels. The Yukos company received 2 million barrels. One Russian company which phonetically reads as Zarabsneft received 174.5 million barrels. Vouchers were also granted to the Russian foreign ministry, one under the name of Al-Fayko for 1 million barrels, and one to Yetumin for 30.1 million barrels. T he Mashinoimport Company received 1 million barrels. The Slavneft Company received 1 million barrels. The Caspian Invest Company (Kalika) received 1 million barrels. The Tatneft Tatarstan company received 1 million barrels. The Surgutneft company received 1 million barrels. Siberia's oil and gas company received 1 million barrels.

In addition, the son of the former Russian Ambassador to Iraq received 19.7 million barrels. Nikolay Ryjkov, a former prime minister of the USSR, received 13 million barrels. The Russian President's office director received 5 million barrels.

Oil vouchers were also distributed to companies and individuals from the Sudan, Yemen, Cyprus, Turkey, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, the UAE, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Panama, Thailand, Chad, China, Nigeria, Kenya, Ireland, Bahrain, and the Philippines. Two Saudi companies were also listed.

God Bless Our Soldiers

Last night Corporal Jamie Brendan Murphy of Newfoundland was killed while on patrol in Kabul. A murderer jumped on their vehicle strapped with explosives killing Jamie and injuring Lieutenant Jason Matthew Feyko, Corporal Richard Michael Newman, and Corporal Jeremy Gerald MacDonald.

To Jamie's family we offer our most heartfelt condolences. He served to bring a better life to others. There is no higher calling in this life and you can take pride knowing that, God willing, the people of Afganistan will someday enjoy a better life because of his service.

To those injured, we pray you have a speedy recovery, and we pray for your families in these difficult times.

God Bless You All.

Stinking France

Well France is up to it again. First off they light up the Eiffel Tower in Commie red and then they give grief to Taiwan for its unilateral actions...

France's president, in a strong show of support for the visiting leader of China, has warned Taiwan that it will be committing a "grave error" that could destabilize that region by holding a referendum in March.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian plans to ask voters whether the island that China claims as part of its territory should beef up its anti-missile defenses if Beijing refuses to withdraw the hundreds of missiles it has pointed at Taiwan.

At a state dinner to honor Chinese President Hu Jintao Monday, French President Jacques Chirac added his weight to China's opposition to the plan.

"Breaking the status quo with a unilateral destabilizing initiative, whatever it is, including a referendum, would favor division over unity," Chirac said. "It would be a grave error. It would carry a heavy responsibility."

So let me get this straight. If Taiwan holds a referendum it is 'unilateral' as defined by the French. What exactly does France consider the hundreds of missiles that Taiwan has pointed at them? Last I heard China didn't ask the UN's permission to target Taiwan with a hundred intermediate range missiles.

Details, details, details...

Canada Votes 2004

As you may have noticed we've added a section on the sidebar titled Canada Votes 2004. We'll be collecting links concerning the upcoming election in the hopes of showing the alternatives we've got when it comes to political parties in Canada.

If you know of any national political parties we may have missed send us a note with their webpage or other relevant info. As well if any readers plan on having, or know of, any blogs or forums dedicated to the upcoming election let us know and we'll be happy to put up a link.

Monkey Update

I'm back on the topic of monkeys. Dennis Miller is going to be getting his own show on CNBC. Check out the rants on his homepage. This weeks is a keeper. Anyone who can make a reasoned argument about why the wheel has caused all of humanities problems has got his stuff together:

You know, I think this whole convenience thing started with the wheel. Before that crazy gizmo came along people didn't expect anything to be convenient. Once we were happy in our dank little caves, until we were able to use the wheel to see that others had caves that were bigger and weren't filled with as much bat guano as ours. With the wheel came envy, a lowering of our self-esteem, and greed. Fuck you wheel.

Anyways back to my original point of Dennis and his new TV show. Dennis on President Bush:

"I like him," Miller explained. "I'm going to give him a pass. I take care of my friends."

Miller is a familiar figure from his years on "Saturday Night Live," HBO and "Monday Night Football," but he will be in a different role on his daily show that debuts 9 p.m. EST Monday.

This is the Miller who has appeared at fund-raisers for Bush, ridden with the president on Air Force One, sat in the gallery at last week's State of the Union speech and was even talked about as a Republican senatorial candidate in California.

His fans didn't necessarily know that Miller. Now they do.

"Nine-11 changed me," he said. "I'm shocked that it didn't change the whole country, frankly."

And what does all of this have to do with monkeys... well sit down before you read this:

The show will feature interviews, a rant on a selected topic, a "Weekend Update"-like comic newscast and a pundit panel he calls "The Varsity."

And a monkey.

You read that right. Miller wanted a simian presence, believing a monkey occasionally scampering across the studio floor will keep both guests and viewers on their toes, he said.

Dennis Miller, a big G.W. fan, and a monkey? So not only do monkeys now have a significant control over the internet, totally out of proportion to their numbers but they also have a presence on a prime-time news channel.

So does the theory in my previous post concerning the Monkey cabal secretly controlling G.W. seem so far fetched? I think not.

Monkeys?

I was gonna write a post about this article that claims only 62% of Ontario high school students graduated last year. But then I thought who really cares about the little ankle biters anyways.

More interestingly, it seems that the internet is slowly being taken over by monkeys! It seems that in our first online poll 42% of the votes have been cast by actual monkeys. Now you might say 'Hey Dana! Your poll isn't exactly scientific.' And of course I'ld have to respond with 'You Punk! Show me one that is.'

Regardless I'm starting to wonder about the state of the world when monkeys are beginning to control one of the high-tech marvels of our age. Now perhaps online monkeys are a tight knit group and share all the wonderful links that they've come across. That would explain why they are all checking out canadiancomment. But seriously, what are the odds of that!? We don't cator to monkeys? I don't think anyways...

And if its the case that monkeys are a tight knit online community then of 1 billion people who accessed online porn last year that only 0.0000005% are monkeys. That seems reasonable and removes the threat of monkeys using the internet to conquor the world. Perhaps the Jewish or Neo-con cabal (depends on the fool you're arguing with) that control George W. Bush is actually a Monkey Cabal set on world domination? And seriously who could blame them. Us humans poke them with things, take some pictures, and walk around talking about how cute they are. Wouldn't that piss you off!

Monkeys... I wonder...

The Truth on Poverty

A very interesting quote I can across in a post over at Common Sense and Wonder:

In Losing Ground, Charles Murray reported that it takes only three things to avoid poverty: finish high school; get married and stay married; get any sort of job at all and stay employed. If it's that easy, why have the Old Media and our "public intellectuals" been so ready to excuse those who won't do it?

I've heard alot on the root causes of poverty but this is the most common sense statement on the topic I've ever heard.

Humans Totally Kick Ass

Ambassador wrecks Swedish Exhibit

[Via little green footballs]

The Israeli ambassador to Sweden smashed an exhibit at the Stockholm International Forum: Preventing Genocide - Threats and Responsibilities:

"This was not a piece of art," the ambassador told Sweden's SR radio news station. "It was a monstrosity."

"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims," he said. "As ambassador [of] Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality."

Dror Feiler the artist of the piece:

As a political activist, Feiler is president of Jews for Israeli Palestinian Peace, which initiated a campaign entitled "Jewish Manifesto: Sharon is Israel's Worst Enemy."

Feiler describes himself as the "eye-bleeding ultimate composer of intifadic and eruptive lung-outs."

Good for the ambassador.

In the news today...

This isn't news but IMAO has the first two installments of his Scientifical Analysis of the Left. This stuff is funny as hell (I know hell isn't particularly funny but you know what I mean):

A Brief History of the Left
Types of Liberals

And who knew Allah was such a wizard with Photoshop?

In national news today:

I may hate Sheila Copps about as much as I hate a kick in the junk but what was happening to Tony when this picture was taken? Does he not have 'people' who's job is to tell him not to make faces like this in public?


All of you environmentalists out there... could any of you tell me when this global warming thing is supposed to kick in? Sweet suffering its cold!

For the leadership of the Conservative Pary of Canada we have two new contenders:

Belinda Stronach
Tony Clement

And check out Tony Clement's picture in the above link. Does it not appear that The Globe and Mail has a corporate policy that all pictures of people named Tony should show the subject in an unflattering light? Or perhaps I should talk to the Globe's webmaster and find out if he/she ever had a bad experience with someone named Tony?

Sens 4 - Isles 4

Well we just can be from the hockey game. The Senators tied the Islanders 4-4. The Islanders had a 4-1 lead in the second so I was getting prepared to write a post about how bad the reffing was. Heck I could have done as good a job watching the game at home and calling the game by phone. Zdeno Chara was called with an Unsportsmanlike Dive. What the bloody hell is an Unsportsmanlike Dive?

I may have been out of the NHL loop for a few years but does anyone know if its become NHL policy to dream up a new stupid penalty call every year?

And whats up with those New York Islanders? Like please. Who in their right mind could cheer for such a slack bunch? The only thing the team ever had going for them was Mike Bossy but even still; have you ever seen a man goofier looking than Mike Bossy? I suppose they must have a few fans from the early 80s when they won the Cup a bunch of times, but even then, those fans would be nothing but a bunch of losers who jumped on the bandwagon when times were good.

A sad bunch indeed. I wonder if Bob has any ideas on what could possibly make a mind deranged and damaged enough to cheer for the Islanders?

A Few Changes at canadiancomment

Due to the input I received for this post you may notice a few small changes.

First off we have an RSS feed that you can find in the Description secton in the right column.

As for the RSS feed I couldn't find any automated RSS collectors (if that's the proper word) that would format the feed properly. I guess this is primarily a problem with Blogspot but who knows. If anyone has figured out how to get an RSS feed formated properly using a free online tool let me know. I've tried using blogmatrix but I couldn't get it to distinguish between the title and body of the post. Currently the feed is being done by hand by yours truely. Problem of course is that its time consuming. I do have XMLSPY to edit it in so that makes it a bit more tolerable but still...

Since I'm on the topic of RSS feeds, Abilon is an awesome freeware RSS reader I stumbled upon yesterday. This thing is sweet! Just put the URL to the RSS feed of your favourite blogs and tada! all your favourites are there at your fingertips. One of the few really kick-ass applications I've seen in a while. For those of you who aren't as cheap as I am you may want to check out FeedDemon another RSS reader I tried. It looked nice but the choice between free and $29.95 is an easy choice for me to make.

Anyways, I've also changed the structure of canadiancomment so that the columns resize properly. I hope it helps.

For all of you who sent me some comments, thank you very much. It's greatly appreciated.

Give War A Chance

I've just finished reading P.J. O'Rourke's Give War A Chance. The subtitle says it all... 'Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer'.


It's basically a collection of articles and book reviews he'ld written from the mid-80s to the early-90s. I've also read his Eat the Rich and a book of his about the Nixon campaign in the 70s but I can't quite remember what it was called.

He's kind of like David Horowitz, an ex-lefty who went right. Much more amusing though.

Iraqi Goose, U.N. Gander

Andrew Apostolou has a great article at NRO about Kofi Annan's support for Saddam Hussein.

Kilroy-Silk and the BBC

Mark Steyn has an interesting take on the BBCs handling of the Kilroy-Silk mess:

Let me see if I understand the BBC Rules of Engagement correctly: if you're Robert Kilroy-Silk and you make some robust statements about the Arab penchant for suicide bombing, amputations, repression of women and a generally celebratory attitude to September 11 - none of which is factually in dispute - the BBC will yank you off the air and the Commission for Racial Equality will file a complaint to the police which could result in your serving seven years in gaol. Message: this behaviour is unacceptable in multicultural Britain.

But, if you're Tom Paulin and you incite murder, in a part of the world where folks need little incitement to murder, as part of a non-factual emotive rant about how "Brooklyn-born" Jewish settlers on the West Bank "should be shot dead" because "they are Nazis" and "I feel nothing but hatred for them", the BBC will keep you on the air, kibitzing (as the Zionists would say) with the crème de la crème of London's cultural arbiters each week. Message: this behaviour is completely acceptable.

So, while the BBC is "investigating" Kilroy, its only statement on Mr Paulin was an oblique but curiously worded allusion to the non-controversy on the Corporation website: "His polemical, knockabout style has ruffled feathers in the US, where the Jewish question is notoriously sensitive." "The Jewish question"? "Notoriously sensitive"? Is this really how they talk at the BBC?

Trevor Phillips of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality has this creepy proposal:

But apparently not. "What Robert could do," suggested the CRE's Trevor Phillips helpfully, "is issue a proper apology, not for the fact that people were offended, but for saying this stuff in the first place. Secondly he could learn something about Muslims and Arabs – they gave us maths and medicine – and thirdly he could use some of his vast earnings to support a Muslim charity. Then I would say he has been properly contrite."

And once again Steyn's response to this is right on the mark:

Extravagant public contrition. Re-education camp. "Voluntary" surrender of assets. It's not unknown for officials at government agencies to lean on troublemaking citizens in this way, but not usually in functioning democracies.

Its a shame that this is what things have come to in the West. As this story shows things aren't much better in Canada. Certain groups must be 'sensitive' to others, while others are basically given a free ticket to say anything they want. Another good example of this can be found here.

And in all actuality I can't figure out why things have come to this. There could be several reasons some of which could be:

- we are afraid of what they'll do if we get 'tough' with them and expect them to treat everyone respectfully
- we don't expect them to behave any better, which is a sort of reverse rasicm
- society as a whole my not be able to deal with the fact that our national creed of multiculturalism may have serious flaws and we would rather ignore the problems and pretend that they don't exist instead of dealing with them

Anyways as an aside, is Mark Steyn not the most entertaining writer at any of the major newspapers? I'ld have to say Jonah Goldberg would have to be a close second though I'm not sure if he is published regularly in any of the major news spreads.

Liberal Intimidation

Rob Anders has a article at National Review Online describing the P.M.'s office intimidation of a Canadian website.

The site in question, Paul Martin Time.ca, is quite frankly a standard satirical website. A site that discusses government policies and pokes some fun at the P.M. while they're at it. It's hard to imagine why this would draw such ire from the P.M.'s office.

Dru Oja Jay, developer of the site says:

I woke up on Wednesday morning to a phone call from a friendly guy named Tim, who informed me that I had one hour to take down the website, PaulMartinTime.ca, or he would set the lawyers loose on our asses (that's not a quote, but it's an accurate summary).

In between his friendly but businesslike remarks, he dropped a few remarks intended to make me nervous. He said, for example, that he "had a little trouble getting through privacy.ca, but they're no longer supporting your cause." If we had in fact been using privacy.ca, that would be pure power-play. It would mean that he had intimidated (legally or otherwise) a company whose function it is to protect the identity of people who use it into breaking its sole mandate. As it turns out, we don't use privacy.ca; the address of Rob Maguire, the person who registered paulmartintime.ca, is publically available, for all with an internet connection to see.

The press release from Paul Martin Time.ca concerning this can be found here.

Paul Martin Time.ca may be a lefty site but anyone who criticizes Paul Martin can't be all bad...

Request for Input

Well canadiancomment has been online now for about two months and I think its about time that we ask for your input into how we are doing.

Any input is appreciated but please note that 'You suck, give it up!' is not input.

If you have a moment please comment and suggest improvements on:

- layout of the site
- ease of reading (or difficulty)
- writing style and content
- any 'blogging' features that are sorely missing
- and anything else you can dream up

I figure I would work on a site redesign and naturally the people who read canadiancomment are the most qualified to recommend improvements. The redesign probably won't appear anytime soon since I'm still trying to figure out how we really want the site to evolve.

As well if anyone has any ideas on server options they would be greatly appreciated. I've got an Apache server running on Linux here at home that would greatly improve our options over Blogspot. Do I hear MovableType anyone? Has anyone tried this and run into uptime problems. The server would run over a highspeed connection which in my past experiences isn't the most reliable of setups.

Anyways, thanks for your help.

What the bloody hell?

After all my ranting about Saddam Hussien and support for Operation Iraqi Freedom, who would have guessed that my result in the What Famous Leader Are You? test would end up being...

What Famous Leader Are You?

My result in the What Classic Movie Are You? isn't much better...

What Classic Movie Are You?

More on Guns

Thanks again to Spin Killer for the link. Spin Killer has become required reading around here so I hope you check them out.

Anyways, Peter Worthington has a great article at the Toronto Sun about the follies of gun control. He quotes David Horowitz saying:

Horowitz tells of a six-year-old in 1999 who walked into a Michigan classroom with a loaded handgun and shot and killed five-year-old Kayla Robbins.

In the ensuing public outcry against "gun violence," President Clinton held a press conference deploring the tragedy and called for mandatory trigger-locks on all handguns.

"In the fantasy world of liberal gun-control advocates, Kayla Robbins might be alive today if a trigger-lock requirement had been added to the 20,000-plus gun laws already on the books," wrote Horowitz.

"In the real world, the little boy who shot Kayla Robbins lived in a crack house run by his uncle who was a career criminal with three outstanding warrants for his arrest. He was living with his criminal uncle because his father was in jail and his drug-addicted mother was out of the picture. Is there any law the government can design that this 'family' would feel compelled to obey?"

This six-year-old did not buy the murder weapon at a gun show to avoid loopholes in existing laws. He did not buy the gun at all. He picked it up, already loaded, from a bed in the crack house where he lived.

These realities refute the idea that a trigger-lock would have saved Kayla Robbins' life.

This case reminds of the Montreal Massacre that was used here in Canada to justify many of the gun control changes we've seen over the years. Mark Steyn did a great write up on this a while back but unfortunately the original article is AWOL. I did manage to come across this snipet curtesy of The Canukistanian:

I loathe the annual commemorations of the Montreal Massacre. I especially dislike the way it's become a state occasion, with lowered flags, like Remembrance Day. But, in this case, whatever honour we do the dead, we spend as much time dishonouring the living -- or at least the roughly 50% of Canadians who happen to be male: For women's groups, the Montreal Massacre is an atrocity that taints all men, and for which all men must acknowledge their guilt. Marc Lepine symbolizes the murderous misogyny that lurks within us all.

M. Lepine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At 18, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the 12 years since.

Ah, well, I would bring that up, wouldn't I? Just for the record, I'm not saying that M. Lepine is representative of Algerian manhood or Muslim manhood. I'm saying he shouldn't be representative of anything -- least of all, the best efforts of women's groups and the convenient gloss of that pure laine name notwithstanding, Canadian manhood.

The above quote does not deal with gun control per say, but it does reflect how many gun control advocates use tragedies to pursue their political goals. In both cases gun control, or registries, would have made no difference. Yet many people agreed to impose weapon restrictions instead of looking at the underlying problem or problems that led to the tragedy.

Awesome Paintjob!

Spin Killer put up this painting by Scott Lobaido called 'Have Faith'.

G.W. Bush with bin Laden's decapitated head. Sweet!

I've never heard of Scott Lobaido before but after checking out this CNN article I was quite impressed.

His accomplishments:

- LoBaido, 38, was arrested in 1999 after throwing horse manure at the exterior of the Brooklyn Museum of Art to protest its display of a painting of the Virgin Mary festooned with elephant dung.

- Last year, LoBaido was arrested for hanging a large American flag on an awning outside the French Consulate as a sign of protest for what he considered France's contempt for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He is on one-year probation.

And according to this:

- LoBaido, who protested the shuttering of a Williamsburg firehouse last August by painting a mural of a smiling mayor shooting a man in the back, has been asked by the National Arts Club to show his latest, Bloomberg bashing, a rendering of a cigarette-puffing Frank Sinatra giving him a bloody beating.

The painting, titled "Black Eye, Bloody Nose and Fat Lip Courtesy of Frank Sinatra," shows a battered Bloomberg sprawled in an alley next to a "No Smoking" sign, as Sinatra walks away trailing a plume of smoke.

- He is on probation for hanging oversize American flags on the façade of the French Consulate. He also painted a flag on School District 3 headquarters after it ruled against requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

This guy has some pizzaz!

Taliban Apologizes

It seems that the Taliban have been boning up on their public relation skills.

Afghanistan's ousted Taliban has apologised for a bomb attack in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 16 people, including many children, and called it a botched attempt to target U.S. troops.

The ousted Islamic militia initially denied involvement in Tuesday's explosion near a military compound as children were passing on their way home from school.

The blast came just two days after a new constitution was adopted in Kabul, which Afghans hope will usher in a period of peace and stability after a quarter of a century of bloodshed.

"It was a mistake by our mujahideen (holy warriors)," senior Taliban commander Mullah Sabir Momin said by satellite telephone on Wednesday.

"We wanted to target the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) office in the city, but because of a small mistake, this plan failed," he told Reuters.

I have no idea why but the thought of a Taliban spokesman admitting to and apologizing for the bombing seems somewhat amusing to me.

[Via Best of the Web Today]

OBL on Mars!

Who would have known?

[Via cerdipity]

The Howard Dean speech that would follow this discovery would go something like:

Deaniacs please be seated. Thank you Comrade Burns for your wonderful introduction.

As many of you are aware, bin Laden has been discovered on Mars by the NASA Spirit mission. And as you are surely equally aware, George W. Bush has once again failed to adequately plan ahead just as we have seen in his failed invasion of Iraq. We are now in the position of knowing bin Ladens whereabouts but without the means to return him to Earth. How can George W. be trusted with America's security when he fails to plan for a situation like we now find ourselves.

I have consistantly noted George W's lack of foresight and planning. If I am elected President, you can rest assured that such mistakes will not be made. I will be sure to equip all space missions with a full judicial panel and legal team capable of defending, I mean prosecuting, bin Laden to the full extent of American law. As well representatives of Amnesty International, the ACLU, and Human Rights Watch will be invited to join all future space missions in the event that an individual fighting again American hegemony, sorry liberty, is apprehended. This is to ensure that the individual is treated with the utmost respect and dignity deserved of all human beings.

As to how bin Laden came to be on Mars I've heard many theories... One is that a Nazi sympathizer, who is also George W's uncle, has developed a time and space travel device capable of transporting people anywhere's within our galaxy. As it goes, George Bush had apprehended bin Laden last July but did not make his capture public so that he could wage his unjust and criminal attack against poor Saddam, damn I mean the poor Iraqi people. This once again proves how deceitful and criminal the present administration has become. Now of course this is just a theory. I have no actual means of verifying if it is true. But regardless this is the kind of insight the American suckers, oops people, deserve from their President.

Elect me and I shall set the truth free!

As a final note, could all the 'Blacks support Dean' signs be left at the exit. Its much easier to bring the signs to each event since it seems none of you have any black friends.

Good night, and God Bless, I mean... just good night.

Someone missed his multiculti classes

Seems multiculturalism isn't necessarily a two way street... B.C. Muslim newspaper accused of anti-Semitism.

And why does the title of the article say 'accused of anti-Semitism'. It is! Trying to be impartial really makes a paper look silly sometimes.

[Via Daimnation!]

Leftist Math

[Via Capitalism Magazine]

Kill the Gun Registry

Paul Martin is hinting that changes are coming to the national gun registry. What changes we should expect are yet to be determined.

According to the article, only one arrest has been made related to the registry, and that was for someone failing to register a weapon. Its pretty bad that the only crime prevented by the gun registry is a crime that only occurred because the legislation is in place. No registry, no failure to register... right?

For $1 Billion you think they could at least jack up the numbers with some token arrests. Throw granny in jail and hail it as a great example of the registry's success.

And why has the national media not further questioned the registry and its lack of success in preventing crimes. The national media will report Liberal excuses and spin forever yet they never seem to get around to the lack of results inherent in this colossal waste of money. Lazy reporting as far as I'm concerned.

Launch of The Western Standard

For those disappointed in the lack of conservative or libertarian viewpoints in Canadian journalism you finally have something to celebrate. The Western Standard will begin publication March 30th.

The publisher will be Ezra Levant well known to many conservatives throughout Canada and will feature many writers from the former Alberta Report.

The magazine will be published bi-weekly with hopes that it will become a weekly magazine after a year of publication. I have no idea how the magazines website will be handled after the launch but here's hoping that some content will be available there as well.

Check it out and sign up for a subscription.

Welcome to 2004

Well it's the start of the New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all the best in 2004.

Nothing much today except for:

Iraq's Future - and Ours
Xmas present from Progressives: Starvation