You either pay attention or pay through the nose. I would rather pay attention.
This is simply beautiful. I urge everyone to read the statements of these two men. One is a Canadian business man from Halifax, and Lebanese consul, who has the luxury of getting quoted by the MSM and the other is a Canadian man who has only his key board and a bit of server memory in the blogosphere.
I think the MSM is paying attention to the wrong Canadians right now because Mark’s “rant” is not really a rant but a well crafted, logical, emotionally unemotional response.
The CTV, in what amounts to severely biased reporting, is continuing to tie Stephen Harper to George Bush. ConservativeLife has pointed out the following headline.
Harper, Bush blame Hezbollah for current crisisYou might think this is accurate but the title omits three key facts:
1) (as pointed out by ConservativeLife) Liberal leader Bill Graham agrees with Bush and Harper.
But more importantly,
2) The G8 was unanimimous in their statement on the situation putting the blame squarely on Hezbollah, this they fully agree as well.
and (to tie in the bias)
3) Two key executives at CTV’s parent company ran the Ontario campaign for the Liberal Party of Canada in the election last January.
Hmmmmmm……
I smell fish and it isn’t even Friday.
I am really curious what Irwin Cotler thinks about the current state of affairs in the Middle East and what he thinks of Stephen Harper’s statements. Oh wait, he already wrote something about this back in 2004 for the Jerusalem Post.
Israel and the Jewish people have been singled out for differential and discriminatory treatment in the international arena — and worst of all — singled out for destruction. The time has come to sound the alarm — not only for Israel and the Jewish people whose safety and security is under existential threat and attack — but for the world community and the human condition as a whole. For as history has taught us only too well, while the persecution and discrimination may begin with Jews, it doesn’t end with Jews.
I urge all Liberals to read the whole article.
Since Stephen Harper is being criticized for his use of the word “measured” with respect to the Israeli response to “kidnapped” soldiers I thought looking at the situation from a different perspective is in order.
I would tend to think that number 7 is the usage Harper was getting at but they all really mean the same thing. Something that is compared, taken into account, evaluated etc.
So here we go. Since January (yes I said January) there have been 1000 or so shells fired into Israel from southern Lebanon. Did the Israeli’s respond? No. They showed incredible restraint by not reacting to these acts of violence.
Last year Lebanon held its’ first elections since 1976 and Hezbollah runs on a platform promise of wiping Israel off the map and wins 35 of 128 seats in the new parliament and Israel sits back with patience and restraint.
Hezbollah, an elected entity in the NATION of Lebanon crosses an INTERNATIONAL border and kills 8 Israeli SOLDIERS and CAPTURES 2 Israeli SOLDIERS and Israel finally reacts.
You really need to stop and think about this. The captilized words are the keys here.
Lebanon is, indeed, a nation. Israel is a different nation. Soldiers from one nation crossed the border and attacked soldiers of the other. This was not just a kidnapping. This was an act of war by any nations standards. In acts of war, soldiers are not kidnapped, they are captured so when you hear the MSM say “kidnapped Israeli soldiers” you can rewrite that as “captured Israeli soldiers”.
For Israel to arrive at the response they have is not unrealistic, nor unexpected. It is how almost any nation would have reacted to an attack on its’ soldiers. They closed down bridges into and out of the country, they bombed the airports and they cut off access via the sea. Was this to prevent innocent people from leaving? No. This was to cut off supply lines just as any good military movement is trained to do. This was to close off the escape route of the un-uniformed Hezbollah fighters who seem to melt into the crowds when push comes to shove.
This was the first step in a “measured” response to what has to happen for Israel to get her soldiers back. It was a “measured” response to wake up Lebanese voters to boot Hezbollah from Parliament. It was a “measured” response to neutralize an enemy who has sworn to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
Do I feel for the Lebanese who are not part of the Hezbollah arm of parliament or the Shite laden southern part of the nation? Yes.
Do I feel that Israel may be doing Lebanon a favour in the long run by doing the dirty work that the pearl of the Middle East has not been able to do for itself? Yes.
Do I feel that for Canadians to choose such a hostile country to vacation in was a poor choice? You bet.
Do I feel for the families of the Canadians (including the one Israeli soldier who spent his summers in Montreal) who have died in this battle? With every bit of my heart.
But the better good is being served by this battle and in the long run, the Middle East will be better off for having this terrorist organization out of Lebanon, out of the Lebanese parliament and out of ammunition.
It was a great night to sit out on the patio at Mexicali Rosa’s at the Dow’s Lake Pavillion last night. We equalled the numbers we got last time around. A good sign considering it’s summer.
I picked up ShamTheToryMan (Shameer Ravji) who lives nearby and off we went. Already waiting for us at the bar outside with a beer was Brent Colbert. PhantomObserver (Victor Wong), with his fedora, found us outside shortly after and Matt McGuire from a Step To The Right strolled on in with a buddy of his his buddy Sean not long after.
Two hours, a couple of brewskis and an evening of political gabbing made it nice way to spend a Friday night in July.
Here we are surrounding a copy of “An Army Of Davids”.
Stephen Taylor has dug up one hell of a nasty video clip that was produced by the CBC. This clip is so heinous in it’s cropping of politicians statements that it goes beyond the bounds of what a state sponsored television network should be airing.
You have to SEE IT to believe it.
So how do we as citizens end this crap from being produced?
There are two places that would hurt the CBC enough to wake them up and both are financial.
1) Get the government to stop funding this dog of a network.
or
2) Hit the CBC in the pocket book via boycotting their sponsors.
Number 1) is a tough one for the average Joe to have a hand in, but Number 2) is not.
You can speak with your dollars by letting the following companies know you are very dissatisfied with their sponsorship of the CBC. Clicking a company name will take you to a webpage that let’s you submit a comment/complaint to them regarding their choice to sponsor the garbage CBC is producing.
Molson Breweries (Molson, Coors, Rickard’s, Tornade, Pilsner, Carling, Bohemian, Heineken, Corona, Miller, Foster’s, Dave’s, Murphy’s, Caffrey’s and Milwaukee’s Best)
Labatt’s Breweries (Labatt’s, Oland, Schooner, Alexander Keith’s, Columbia, Kokanee, Kootenay, Lucky, Club, Blue Star, Budweiser, Guiness, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe Blonde, Belle-Vue Kriek, Bass, Boddington’s, Cristal, Lowenbrau and Beck’s)
I would urge people to switch to Sleeman’s or some other microbrewery in the meantime.
Home Hardware ( a special case since each store is individually owned you need to contact a store near you. Find it by clicking here)
Tim Horton’s (which will be killer on me because I do respect them for honouring the 1% GST cut)
Ford Motor Company
Imperial Oil (Esso)
If anyone has other suggestions, or knows of any other HNIC sponsors, please let me know. I would be glad to add them to the above list.
I know, I know. It sound’s like just another leftist type activist blog post but this is a right wing activist blog post. All you have to do is see the crap the CBC is producing. For other abuses of our tax dollars at work, I urge you to look at any of these links to Proud To Be Canadian’s Extensive list of CBC crap.
The Gay Bush Hating Channel Presents
Canada’s Own l’il Jihad Network
Joel has dozens of examples. Simply scroll down his page and on the left type CBC in the search box.
ADDENDUM: I have sent all my emails off to the above mentioned sponsors (except Home Hardware who has no stores in my neighbourhood). I urge you all to do the same.
The City of Ottawa with a jampacked East-West traffic thoroughfare has chosen to blow almost a billion dollars of Federal money on a North-South light rapid transit that is, in effect, a streetcar. The route will be fully electric meaning overhead wires, and despite the belief it will be a train system, it will, in effect, be a streetcar style which will:
A) put enormous stress on the already burdened power grid,
B) open up the possibility to a power failure stranding thousands of people, including the possibility of being stuck under Dow’s Lake.
C) take more power which comes from coal fired and nuclear produced electricity costing $20M per km of track when the diesel electric option would have cost $4M per km.
The city forged ahead with this plan despite the countless calls to radio shows and to councillor offices which did change the mind of a few councillors. But not enough to have the system reassessed after this falls municipal election.
The booming and growing East-West regions of Kanata and Orleans which are outpacing any other areas in the city when it comes to growth, are left in the cold at this time. So why is the transit way moving North-South? Many are wondering but I can tell you that the Mayor of Ottawa is a staunch Liberal and has made his opinion very clear when helping campaign for provincial and federal Liberals who include the McGuinty Brothers. And guess where the McGuinty brothers got elected?
Ottawa South.
Guess which directions of traffic are voting Conservative these days? Yup. East-West. Guess what part of Ottawa has jumped from 35,000 people to close to 100,000 in less than ten years? The west end of Kanata-Stittsville.
To give you an idea I have included a small map of the city. The thick red line indicates the route of the streetcar (and that’s all it really is, a glorified streetcar). The white area represents the provincial and federal ridings of Ottawa South.
(click to enlarge)
Something is REALLY fishy on this one. REALLY fishy. For those who may think that that extension across the south end of the city should discount this argument, I must point out that the majority of that extension was an afterthought when they realized how many people live in the Barrhaven area of southwest Ottawa.
Ironically, for most Barrhaven residents the bus that runs downtown will, more than likely, be eliminated and the streetcar LRT will take 15 extra minutes to reach the downtown core. When you take into account most residents of Barrhaven will need to head south via bus or car to the LRT station, the trip that used to take many 30 minutes will now take an hour. How many will just drive and save the time?
This North-South route, according to the Mayor’s own admission, is to prevent the need for a huge highway running East-West as the 401 does in Toronto,which implies that his move is to FORCE the city to grow southward and buck the trend of almost every major urban area in the world. The typical growth path for almost every city in North America is westward. This is a fact. Yet the Mayor has chosen to piss off every resident in Kanata and Stittsville by FORCING them to move east or South to avoid the long drives downtown in the jammed 417. Simple stupidity.
The legacy he thinks he is building will go down in infamy as the hated Chiarelli Streetcar. Mark my words.
OfficiallyScrewed … again.
Stephen Harper and the whole “Steve” thing got quite a bit of play last week and I think my view on this counts somewhat since my name is Steve.
Now I must add, my legal name is Steve. (not Stephen or Steven) and every conversation with an administrator who took information inevitably ended up like this.
Admin: First name?
Me: Steve
Admin: Is that with a V or a PH?
Me: I said Steve, not Stephen
And I would then proceed to receive a dirty look. That was the only negative.
Positive Number 1
There is this Indie movie called The Tao Of Steve which an old co-worker told me about.
The “Steve” whose philosophy is espoused in Jenniphr Goodman’s indie film is every studly Steve who ever lived in movies, Steve McQueen being the prime example.
These are the men who never seemed to care about getting the girl, but who always got them anyway. “Steve is the prototypical cool American male,” says Dex (Donal Logue), the film’s protagonist and chief advocate of the Tao of Steve.
It’s a really good feel good movie for the average guy and worth a rental.
Positive Number 2
Then there is the whole one syllable angle. One syllable names just sound “cooler” (in general). In multicultural Canada, only Stefano might be slightly cooler.
Positive Number 3
Moving from a 7 letter name to a 5 letter name means less paper so it is more environmentally friendly. (ok, that one’s stretching it)
I didn’t even know this black hole of Liberal spending existed!!
But I am glad it is now in limbo.
H/T to DBT
I have a special vested interest in this news. My dad was one of those who received tainted blood that gave him hepatitis C. With this being such a personal issue, I have never spoken about it on my blog because of a deep seated resentment. You see, the Hep C flareups my dad had during his battle with a beatable cancer made his condition very hard to handle for the oncologists.
He was in his late 50’s. He had several years of work left in a good paying job that would have made life in their retirement much easier than it has been for my mom. The proposed payment should make life a bit easier for her in the coming years. Knowing my mom, she will probably outlive me so this is in no way tied to any greed on my part. I just don’t want her worrying about the monthly bills in her gardening years.
My dad taught me so many things that I can only mention a few. He taught me to play backgammon on an old board he had. I have been teaching Cookie on the same board and everytime I roll the dice I think of him. He taught me how to kick soccer balls and every one of T-Bone’s soccer games, I think of him. He taught me my love for hockey, which for a Greek immigrant was a major feat and every game I think of those Wednesday and Saturday nights watching Borje Salming and Darryl Sittler. He taught me to respect my elders which I still do to this day although more and more I notice that the number of people older than me is dwindling. He taught me how to work hard for what I earn and he taught me how to care for my possessions, which I think about everytime I spend a dollar or get something fixed on my truck. He taught me to tease, something Cookie reminds me of everytime she says “daaaad, quit being so sarcastic” which she has been saying since she was 6.
But most of all he taught me to joke and laugh as much as possible. I am reminded of this every bad joke my wife rolls her eyes at. (but I see the sides of her lips curling up a bit in a smile everytime.)
I miss you Pops. You can stop worrying about mom now. Stephen Harper is making things right.