Author: Mulder

NDP Convention – Bush Count Hits 9 On CPAC

Mulder

Last night I watched ten minutes of the NDP convention and heard George Bush’s name once.

This morning Alexa McDoughhead was interviewed and said George Bush’s name four times.

Laurel Gibbons was interviewed shortly later and the other NDP gentleman who was interviewed with her mentioned Bush once and that it was a war for oil. (I do commend Laurel for at least being supportive of the troops as she is married to a military man.)

ADDENDUM: 9:07 am – Paul Dewar just mentioned Iraq twice, Vietnam and Americans in his interview regarding his resolution. No mention of Bush, but he did just say people signed up to the military years before Iraq, implying they had no clue that they would end up in a war (morons) and it also shows that Paul Dewar and the NDP are trying to tie the current Afghani mission to the one in Iraq when Canadians are not even in Iraq.

ADDENDUM: 9:17 am Jack Layton gets the mic first and mentions Bush three times.

ADDENDUM: 9:38 am – After complaining that the vote to extend the mission last session in parliament only had 6 hours of debate, the NDP have a standing vote after 21 minutes to go to a vote on the resolution to remove our forces from Afghanistan immediately. They don’t have the 2/3rds needed to go to vote and debate continues. (Peter Stoffer is a real man and I would like to shake his hand.)

ADDENDUM: 9:46 am – A motion to defer the debate is made and debate on the referral begins.

ADDENDUM: 9:54 am – Vote to refer the motion fails and they move back to the main motion.

ADDENDUM: – 9:58 am – after a full 51 minutes debate, a full 5 hours and 9 minutes LESS than the debate in the house on this issue, the NDP pass a motion to resolve that they remove troops from Afghanistan immediately. (i.e. the NDPussy Motion passes)

How Canada Earned Her Stripes

Mulder

If you have not read anything about the Battle of Vimy Ridge, you must. These few paragraphs from Pierre Berton’s book Vimy are dedicated to all the Dippers at convention this weekend. (ADDENDUM: You can add the left leaning MSM who only seem to focus on the Canadian who die and not the successes.)

The Germans had held and strengthened this fortress for more than two years and believed it to be impregnable. The French had hurled as many as twenty divisions against it and failed to take it. In three massive attacks between 1914 and 1916 they had squandered one hundred and fifty thousand poilus, dead or mangled. The British, who followed the French, had no better success. Now it was the Canadians’ turn.

…

The Canadian Corps (which included one British brigade) faced an incredible challenge. In one day – in fact in one morning – these civilian volunteers from a small country with no military tradition were expected to do what the British and French had failed to do in two years. The timetable called for most of them to be on the crest of the ridge by noon. and they were expected to achieve that victory with fifty thousand fewer men than the French had lost in their own frustrated assaults.

And thanks to the leadership of Currie, training and retraining on a mock version of the ridge back home, and the success of the creeping barrage, they did it. All in a mornings work. Battles and skirmishes continued on afterwards for a few days, but it was over. The Germans were routed.

In the dressing stations behind the old Canadian lines there was no sleep. Before the Battle of Vimy Ridge was over, the doctors, stretcher-bearers, and medical orderlies would treat 7,004 wounded men. Another 3,598 were past help. In sort, one Canadian in ten was killed or wounded in the four-day battle for the ridge. That is not a high ratio by Great War standards, but to that number must be add another 9,553 casualties suffered at Vimy in the months before the battle. Sniper fire, artillery fire, and trench raids took their toll. Put bluntly, to take vimy Ridge it cost Canada twenty thousand casualties, about a quarter of whom would never go home.

It was on this day that Canada grew up from being “that little British lad across the pond” to “that strapping Canadian chap who helps right the world’s wrongs”.

Red Friday Explodes Across Blogosphere And The Ottawa Valley

Mulder

Well today was a fun day. While driving to the office I noticed a few others wearing red in cars while waiting at … ahem … red lights. I nodded to a couple and tugged at my red sweatshirt. I got a smile and a nod back.

I actually wore a nicer red Roots pullover to work and the sweatshirt below while out to dinner with the family tonight.Red Friday 1 I also managed to finagle a red ribbon magnet for the back of my truck today. When they told me they only had French ones left, I told them I didn’t care and that we are a bilingual country.

Call after call to Lowell Green’s show were supportive of the Red Fridays today. Lowell and his folks were working frantically to get prepped for setting up a Red Friday on Parliament Hill to get an aeriel photo of a sea of red to send to the troops.

I noticed today that Matt at A Step To The Right has jumped on board, but when I saw a comment from Shere at Dust My Broom, it really made my day.

There is a call going (or already gone) from CFRA in Ottawa to a radio talk show host in Calgary and I suspect next week this whole Red Friday thing will be across the country.

For those who ask “Why not Yellow?”, the response I heard today was that the yellow ribbon is a welcome home ribbon for soldiers. The Red Ribbon/Red Friday campaign is just a way we are showing support to the soldiers and their families. It is likened to friends shaving their heads to show support for a friend with cancer.

if your heart goes out to the families of the soldiers overseas, then wearing red on Fridays is the way for you to show it. Wear your heart on your sleeve.

What The Canadian Legion Thinks Of Red Fridays

Mulder

Just because I got a few questions (and a few unsupportive remarks) regarding the request to wear red clothing on Fridays as a show of support for our troops overseas, i want to point out that this is not just for one Friday but ALL Fridays.

If you don’t believe me, you can believe the Royal Canadian Legion.

08/09/06 03:10 pm

Subject: ALL BRANCH – A TOUTES LES FILIALES (06-018) – Red Fridays – Vendredis Rouges

All branches are advised of the current “Red Friday” movement promoting the wearing of red items on Fridays to show support to our troops. Please note that The Royal Canadian Legion endorses all such support programs and encourages all of our branches to express their support publicly.

I hope this helps garner support for what our own Legions are supporting.

Red Fridays To Support Our Canadian Troops

Mulder

A few months ago, the families of Canadian soldiers based in Petawawa started wearing red on Fridays as a show of support for our troops overseas.

Tomorrow, Friday September 8th, I will be wearing red for the first time in support of our troops. I hope you, too, decide to wear red to show you care about them.

Many may say that the troops would never know, but their are family members of our troops all over Canada and many of them could use the show of support too. They speak to their loved ones often, and if we all wear red, maybe, just maybe, we can put some lift in the heart of our soldiers that may carry them through some of the tough battles they are facing.

Red Fridays. Spread the word.

Gwynne Dyer's Pants On Fire After Substandard Research

Mulder

Ok, so I just continued the line started by Let It Bleed.

But this kind of shlocky journalism has to be stopped in it’s tracks.

Indeed, no other non-Muslim nation except Israel was a target for Islamist terrorist attacks until after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. And the attacks since then have been aimed at the citizens of countries that were complicit in that invasion: Londoners, not Parisians; Spaniards, not Germans; Australians holidaying in Bali, not Japanese holidaying in Malaysia

Considering the bombing in Bali took place on October 12th, 2002, Gwynne should be apologizing to all his readers in all 45 countries he is published in for this bald faced attempt to lie.  Ironically, he even uses Bali in his list which makes it truly sad.

The public, if not already, should be very leery of what they read and see in the MSM.  The press today is not like it was 20 years ago.  The advent of quick exchanges via email and electronic data transfer has made it too easy for information to make it to print without the due diligence being done to make sure the information is accurate.

In their attempts to make their deadlines so they get the scoop before someone else, today’s reporters are starting to slack big time to be first and make the big bucks.

H/T to Let It Bleed.

NDPussies

Mulder

Canadian Casualties Through History

The Great War (World War I) – 1914-1918
Military Deaths – 66,655 (approximately 13,000/year)
Wounded – 172,950 (approximately 34,500/year)

World War II (1939-1945)
Military Deaths – 42,042 (approximately 7,000/year)
Wounded – 53,145 (approximately 9,000/year)

Korean War (1950-1953)
Military Deaths – 516 (approximately 125/year)
Wounded – 1042 (approximately 250/year)

Afghanistan (2001-2006)
Military Deaths – 33 (approximately 5/year)
Wounded – 129 (approximately 20/year)

Note: for annual approximation averages, whole calendar years were used even if the war only took place for part of that year (for ease of calculations)

ADDENDUM In case the above post was misconstrued, it was not meant to put down our military one bit. It is meant to tell those who want to cut in run in Afghanistan to go take a flying leap. If we had cut and run against Hitler, where would we be? If we had not helped South Korea from being overrun, we would not have such great companies like Hyundai or Samsung.

The mission in Afghanistan must continue because the Afghanis need us. These oppressed people need strong humans to help them live free. When schools are blown up because girls are allowed to attend, they need us. When teachers are tortured because they teach girls along with the boys, they need us.

I, and my whole family, are very proud of every single soldier who has set foot in Afghanistan on behalf of the NATO mission which has been sanctioned by the UN. Just because the NDPussies want to get out, doesn’t make this mission wrong.

Don’t be fooled by their pansy asses.

NDP Propose To Ignore Maps Via Pullout Of Troops From Afghanistan

Mulder

…by blaming the Iraq war. Stephen Taylor has busted out the NDP proposals for their national convention and in resolutions 6, page 3, they feel we should leave Afghanistan because the war in Iraq sucks. Ironically, we were in Afghanistan BEFORE the Iraq war.

I really wish someone in the NDP would look at a map of the middle east and figure out that Iraq is not Afghanistan and that there are no Canadian troops in Iraq.

WHEREAS the war on Iraq was based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and

WHEREAS there are not and were not any weapons of mass destruction; and

WHEREAS the Canadian mission in Afghanistan helped support the war in Iraq and the bigger picture which includes the control of oil in that region; and

WHEREAS the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan is a mission of military occupation; and

WHEREAS this mission aids the Americans and the transnational oil corporations in their lust for control of oil; and

WHEREAS war resisters in Canada are bravely communicating their difficult conscientious decision to abandon the amoral Iraqi war,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the NDP actively advocates for the immediate end of the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan

You have to love the cute little peaceniks. I bet the person who resolved this wore tye dye at one time and just forgot to take it off. I wore tye dye for a stretch of my life too, but then I grew up.

Refugee Status Vs. Old Age Pension In Canada

Mulder

Apparently, there is an email circulating which discusses the difference between the funds provided for Old Age Pension vs. the funds provided refugees to Canada. It goes as follows.

CANADA PENSION

Only in Canada.

Do not apply for your old age pension. Apply to be a refugee. It is interesting that the federal government provides a single refugee with a monthly allowance of $1,890.00 and each can get an additional $580.00 in social assistance for a total of $2,470.00.

This compares very well to a single pensioner who, after contributing to the growth and development of Canada for 40 or 50 years, can only receive a monthly maximum of $1,012.00 in old age pension and Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Maybe our pensioners should apply as refugees!

I wanted to do my due diligence so took a quick peek around the Government of Canada website for refugee funding and found the $580 RAP (Resettlement Assistance Program) money but could not find where the $1,890 came from.

If anyone out there is aware of where this $1,890 monthly allowance comes from, I would appreciate knowing because if this email circulating is true, it really says a lot about how poorly we have Officially Screwed our senior citizens.

ADDENDUM – I found the Old Age Security payment charts. There is obviously some variation on the amount from the email floating around. You can see the whole grid below and for much more info click the link above. The Guaranteed Income Supplement from the government site is $1006.19. This is not quite the $1012 claimed in the email but pretty darn close so I give the email some credibility here.

While digging for the source of the $1890, I did find the one time household start up page but this is not a monthly allowance. It simply helps refugees start up a household with initial clothing, food, cleaning supplies, phone hookup, etc.