Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Desperation On Display

I Told You...

...SUV driving, CO2 belching people to stay away from Saturn. Now look what you've done!!


NASA eyes monster hurricane on Saturn
"...the storm's eye is 1,250 miles wide — about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth. And the Saturn maelstrom is more powerful than its Earth counterparts, with winds at its outer edge whipping around at 330 mph."
This one has lasted a bit longer, too.
"Cassini's instruments detected the Saturn storm shortly after the probe arrived in orbit around the ringed planet in 2004."
[---]
"So Cassini had to wait for the onset of the northern spring in August 2009 to get a good look at the hurricane in visible light."
But then again, this comes from Faux News, so we're not supposed to believe it.

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Of Course...

...we have to have our spring blizzard, don't we?

Just when you thought the interminable winter was almost over.

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Everybody Seems To Get Older!!

Gordie Howe is 85 years old!!!!

So sad to hear that his memory loss is quite significant and debilitating.



I guess I am a hockey fan, after all. It's just that I like to see skill on the ice, not pointless brawls, broken bones and strapping young men having their brains turned to mush. Gordie Howe was one of those guys with actual skill.

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Well, I'm A Redneck...

Friday, April 26, 2013

Too Handsome?

Or too much competition for the religious police?

I'd let him into Canada, anyway.

I see what they mean.

And speaking of the Arab Parallel Universe:

Syria and Iraq's(?) chemical weapons. Nah. Can't be.

And, last, but not least:

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Hell Just Got...

...hotter:

Earth's core 1,000 degrees hotter than thought, on par with the sun

No question about it though. This was caused by man's burning of fossil fuels.

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Good One, Harper!

This Is The Problem...

...with UN peacekeepers:

UN to send peacekeepers into risky Mali conflict

There has to be a peace to keep.

And how many years have there been peacekeepers in Cyprus? Oh ya. More than forty years. It's not working, folks.

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

How Did He Get There?

How a big cat roamed Britain a century ago

"A new study has proved the carnivorous Canadian lynx roamed here at the turn of the 19th century after the beast's remains were unearthed in the vaults of a museum.

A team of scientists from four leading British universities said the find is the earliest example of an "alien big cat" in the country."
There's gotta be a global warming angle here, wouldn't you say?

And speaking of global warming:

Global warming quiz: Do you know or think you know?

Gotta wonder how the warmmongers would fair taking this quiz. My hunch is with a heavy dose of denial.

And this one, especially, since it's a product of the petroleum industry - er - Big Oil:

The Trouble With the Term 'Anti-Science'


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Surprise! Surprise!!

French jobless claims hit all-time high in March

What'd ya expect when you elect a socialist party?

And this is just too hilarious for words:
"In a bitter irony, the only place to have announced any major hiring plan recently is the national employment agency Pole Emploi, which said last month it would hire 2,000 extra staff by September."

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Ya Think!!??

Bombing Suspects' Mom Regrets Move to US That 'Took My Kids Away From Me'

"The mother of the Boston bombing suspects said she will never accept the accusations that her sons carried out last week's deadly attack."
[---]
"'I'm sure that my kids were not involved in anything,' she added, saying she would need more proof, but quickly adding that anything could be forged."
[---]
"'We thought America was going to protect us. America took my kids away from me.'"
[---]
"She went on to dismiss reports that her younger son, Dzhokhar, had already spoken about how the brothers planned the attack, questioning the veracity of news reports.

The mother spoke at an emotional news conference here alongside her husband. They grieved for their sons, but were at times visibly angry, pounding the table as they demanded more evidence that their sons were guilty, as well as proof that their elder son, Tamerlan, was not killed by police after being captured alive."
I think you're not the only one who regrets your move to the US. And damned if she doesn't sound like yer garden variety Islamist. I'm surprised she didn't lay the blame on Israel.

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Hmmmmmm

Me thinks this is more of an "eye of the beholder" kinda thing.

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Happy DNA Day!

Betcha didn't know there was such a thing, did ya.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Perv Must Have Gotten...

Luv It!




I've seen that painting. You simply cannot appreciate the interplay of light and darkness until you see it first hand. Absolutely amazing!

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Just Heard This On...

...the radio:

Saskatchewan has coldest spring in a century
"Cold-weather records broken in at least 12 communities across province"

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Save Your Breath, Mr. Lilly

You can't take the stupid out of some people. Listen to the first few minutes:

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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Pauline Has To Sell...

...her dream:

Parti Quebecois promotes economic benefits of sovereignty in new ad campaign
"Marois says an independent Quebec would be more efficient and cut back on bureaucracy."
Which is code for: "We'll have to cope without those transfer payments."



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Happy Birthday Liz




And many, many more, please. Outlive that doltish son of yours.

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Who Says...

...Canadians can't be innovative?

Canadian glow-in-the-dark toilet seat fights the dark

That would come in really handy for those middle-of-the-night dashes to the loo.

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Janet Napolitano...

Just One More Indication...

...that Saskatchewan is booming:

Saskatoon airport expanding to meet travel demand

Take that, Dippers!!

Make that two:

Former Manitoba family shocked by Sask. tax savings

And speaking of taxes, I got my income tax done by a local accountant, and I was certain I'd have to pay this year, but turns out the taxman owes me nearly $3000. Niiiiiiice.

I've already got ideas on how to spend it, and several times more than that. The house I live in was built in 1957, or thereabouts, and things are starting to fall apart, so this money will come in really handy.

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Skirting Around The Issue


Chechnya's centuries-long bloody strife goes global

This one dwells on Chechnya's fixation with separation from Russia. Buried at the bottom is the following:
"This conflict is ethnic and political, but it has a religious overlay. Chechens are Muslim, and some share the belief that the west is engaged in a global campaign against Islam. They have decided that their response should also be global. George Bush's global "war on terror" has found its corollary: a globalised campaign of terror."
Nice swipe at the victim. Yet it offers no evidence to link the Boston bombers directly to this "globallised campaign of terror." It merely serves as an avenue through which the leftist Guardian can take a swipe at George Bush.

Chechnya’s History of Violence: Did It Influence the Tsarnaev Brothers?

This one mentions Islam, ties to the Taliban, and so on, but dwells mostly on the Chechen region's conflict with Russia. But, bingo!! It actually hints at the possibility that the Boston bombers may have been influenced by radical Islam:
"...young men in the North Caucasus have started to turn away from the region’s long-standing tradition of Sufi Islam in favor of the more puritanical Salafi creed imported from the Middle East. Judging from Tamerlan’s YouTube feed, the Tsarnaev brothers may have subscribed to Salafist dogma, which could suggest that their apparent campaign of violence this week in the Boston area had a jihadist motive."
[---]
"The brutality of the Russian campaigns turned what was a largely secular struggle into a pan-Islamist cause. Arab fighters flocked to the Chechen banner. Certain Chechen warlords cultivated links with jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda. Some reports suggest that Chechen fighters later joined the ranks of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as radical militant groups fighting against Indian rule of Kashmir. There’s evidence that Chechen fighters are also on the ground in Syria. But others contend that the extent of the Chechen presence in many of these conflicts is overstated. Military analysts often tag foreign fighters as “Chechen” even when they’re from other corners of the former Soviet Union.

Despite Russia’s ruthless efforts to quash rebellion, a low-level insurgency still simmers in Chechnya and the neighboring Russian republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia. Chechen militants have exacted a heavy price over the years. In 2002, Chechen gunmen seized the Dubrovka theater in Moscow, taking hundreds hostage. The Russian commando raid that followed led to more than 120 deaths. In 2004, alleged Chechen and Inghush fighters captured a school in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia. The resulting three-day hostage crisis ended with the deaths of nearly 400 people, many of whom were children. In 2010, two female suicide bombers detonated themselves in a Moscow subway station, killing 39.
Again, plenty of blame laid at the feet of Russia, yet, although it mentions that Chechnya is a Muslim land, nothing is said about the role of Islam in the formation of Chechnya's violent past, although this is kinda interesting:
"Chechnya is one of eight mainly Muslim ethnic republics that sprawl across the northern face of the Caucasus Mountains – which contain some of Europe's highest peaks – between the Black and Caspian Seas. The region is a patchwork of separate nationalities, speaking wildly different tongues, who have a history of intense animosity between each other that's eclipsed only by their historic tensions with Russia." [Emphasis mine]
 Chechnya: How a remote Russian republic became linked with terrorism
"In their long, violent struggle against the Kremlin, Chechen radicals have hit soft targets before. In 2010, two female suicide bombers from Dagestan blew up the Moscow metro, killing at least 40 people and injuring 100. A year later, another suicide bomber struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport, killing 37 and wounding 180. Other murderous attacks include one on a Beslan school in 2004, where 334 hostages died, most of them children.

But the Boston Marathon bombing, which police suspect was perpetrated by two Chechen brothers, Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, are something altogether new. It is so far unclear how significant is the trail that appears to lead from the simmering ongoing insurgency in the mountains of the North Caucasus to the boulevards and suburban houses of North America.

After 18 years, two wars and the loss of hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, the conflict in Chechnya, and Russia's southern backyard more generally, has changed. From 1994 to 1996, Boris Yeltsin fought a war against mainly secular Chechen separatists who wanted, like other ethnic republics after the USSR collapsed, their own nationalist and constitutional state. From 1999 to 2004, Vladimir Putin – Yeltsin's steely successor – fought a second Chechen war. The aim was to definitively crush Chechen separatism.

In recent years, however, the Kremlin and its regional proxies have been battling a different kind of enemy. This new generation of insurgents has an explicitly Islamist goal: seeking to create a radical pan-Caucasian emirate ruled by Islamic law, like Afghanistan under the Taliban. The movement's leader, Doku Umarov, unveiled this ambitious vision in 2007. He vowed to "liberate" not only Russia's Muslim north Caucasus but a large chunk of European Russia.

Umarov also suggested that devout Muslims should think internationally.

His comments, later softened, said: "Today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Palestine our brothers are fighting. Everyone who attacks Muslims wherever they are, are our enemies, common enemies. Our enemy is not Russia only, but everyone who wages war against Islam and Muslims.""

It's Islam, stupid, not Russia, and certainly not America.





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This Is Funny...

...or kinda sad, depending on your point of view:

Chechen is not Czech, Prague's envoy reminds
"That is the simple message that the Czech government wants Americans to know in the aftermath of this week's bombings of the Boston Marathon, allegedly by two brothers of Chechen origin.

The Czech Republic's ambassador to the United States Petr Gandalovic felt Saturday compelled to clear up what he called a "most unfortunate misunderstanding" that some Americans on Twitter have been guilty of in recent days.

"The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities," he said in a press release posted on his embassy's website Saturday."
[---]
"Americans are notorious for being geographically challenged, and historically get low scores for their knowledge of the globe."

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

That's What I Call...

...serious inflation:

Rare 1936 Canadian penny sells for $253,000

I know nuttin' about coin collecting. I wonder how many $253,000 worth pennies (or other coins, for that matter) I've let slip through my fingers.

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Friday, April 19, 2013

They Got Him!!

Well done, Boston!

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Leftards Will Be Leftards

Oppostion questions diplomatic skills of former Mountie chosen as next ambassador to Jordan

I would think, given the conflicts their job gets them involved in, policemen (and women) would be masters of diplomacy.

But, leftards will be leftards.

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Oh, I So Agree With You...

Mr. Soloman:

History trumps Climate scientists

"Any child can understand that the Romans conquered the world when temperatures were warmer than today, that the Dutch invented the ice skates during the Little Ice Age five hundred years ago, and that melting glaciers off Newfoundland a century ago produced the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. Each of these well documented periods shreds speculations from climate alarmists, such as their assertion that the Arctic is only now warming, or that temperatures had been relative stable over the past one or two thousand years, and only in the last century climbed dramatically."
[---]
"The vast Antarctic, of course, has been mostly inaccessible, but numerous expeditions to the region, beginning with James Cook’s voyage in the 1770s, provide actual, rather than scientifically surmised or reconstructed, data. The explorers from Australia, Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden and Switzerland tell us, for example, that the contours of the continent continually changed. Antarctica’s Bay of Whales, used by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1911 and Richard Byrd expeditions in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, changed so often and became so unstable that in the 1950s it became unusable as a port and in the 1980s, after a 99-mile-long iceberg broke off it, the bay disappeared entirely."
[---]
"the Northwest Passage would be several times traversed, first by the same Amundsen who had earlier explored the Antarctic. History shows us that the Arctic has oftentimes warmed, making a mockery of claims that the modest recent warming is in any way extraordinary."
But my all time favourite is found in the journals kept by the HBC's explorer/trader, Samuel Hearne, concerning a trees in the far north.

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I Have An Idea...

...for Earth Day, which is tomrrow. How 'bout making it warm up and take all the snow away, so I can actually see some earth.

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

I'm Tempted...

 UPDATE: I can identify with this, especially the one about waddling (#6).
-----------------ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE----------------
...to say something really snarky, but I actually kinda understand this:

Fathers suffer at childbirth too - study

Even when there are no complications, having Dad in the delivery room can be a pain in the butt, and what woman in labour needs more pain? Their presence can actually be kind of annoying (I speak from experience).

You see, men have this instinct to be the fixer, but there's nothing they can do to stop the pain and agony of hard labour, even though they try. Still, it's nice for them to witness the birth of their child(ren) and to be able to hold the squirming, squawking little beasts right after they are born.

And it amazes me, that after several hours of agony, a new mother instantly forgets the pain, as soon as she gets to hold the little beast. At least that's how it was for me. Mind you, my first one was a breech delivery, and that was traumatic - and he was kinda big, too, at 8 1/2 lbs, and two weeks overdue. He was supposed to arrive on December 16th. He missed that deadline. He missed Christmas, but didn't make it to New Year's Eve. He came out bum first and I've always teased him about that. The first thing he did in this world was flash a moon at everyone.

The second one, his sister, was a breeze. Two weeks early and only 6 lbs and a bit. And she arrived the normal way - head first.

I have a question though. Why are babies born in the middle of the night, or at the very least, why do they keep you awake all through the night and sometimes into the next day? And then don't sleep through the night for many, many months, afterward. Little savages.

Oh, and why do doctors, etc., insist on laying you on your back when allowing gravity to assist would make it so much easier.

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Entertainment Has Begun

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That's One Giant Game...

...of Leap Frog:

Florida frog hops ride to Regina

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It Just Doesn't Get Any Better...

...than this:

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I've Just Got One Thing...

...to say: "Look at all those bald heads!!"

Maggie Thatcher's funeral

Margaret Thatcher laid to rest in London

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Okay. Let Me Tell You...

...how this story from Boston has affected me. Last night, shortly after climbing into bed, I found myself bawling like a baby. I was thinking especially of the little eight year old boy who was killed. I wanted to reach out and hug his parents. I wanted someone to hug me. Why is the world so full of shit like this?

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BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Canadian’s letter washes ashore in Croatia 28 years later

As someone in the comments says: "Much like Canada Post."

It's in the mail.

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And Another One...

...bites the dust:

Cape Breton mourns Rita MacNeil: 'She had the guts to get up and do what she did'

Yup. My turn's a-coming. Of course, I'm egging it on by sitting in front of this keyboard all day.

I loved this song:

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Let Me Take A Moment...

...from my emotional reaction to the Boston bomb and offer you something about Canadian history which is bound to make you laugh:

And for the cherry on top, or something. Maybe "cherry" and "on top" aren't the best descriptors, in this case. You decide:

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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tears And Disgust



This little guy was killed yesterday in Boston. All he wanted to do was watch the marathoners, his father especially, cross the finish line.

I can tell you the feeling that I want to cry, puke and hit something at the same time is a strange mix of emotions. May he rest in peace.

Everyone seems to be assuming the perp is a Muslim extremist. I'm still open on that. He could have been a common, natural born American with an Irish name, garden variety nut job.

Whoever it was or whatever the motivation, I am sickened.

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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Here It Is Again

This comment was posted in the comments at the American blog, Weazel Zippers, but at least this one was meant in jest:
"Stacking 75 percent of Canadians within 100 miles of US border is suspect too" [Ed: The lack of punctuation (a comma and a period) at the end of the sentence is in the original.]
Once again folks, most of Canada's population is located along significant waterways. Waterways that were critical transportation routes during the early era of settlement in Canada and that were highways for the transportation of furs and trade goods during the fur trade era.

For example, the City of Montreal is located on either side of the St. Lawrence River. In fact, old Montreal, the oldest part of the city, is located on an island in the middle of that river. Quebec City is also on that river. Toronto is located at the east end of Lake Ontario. The fact that that water system happens to be close to an international border that didn't exist at the time they were settled is coincidental, but trust me, it was the waterway, as a transportation route, that was the critical factor in the locating of that population, not some future border of some, at that time, non-existent country.

Ottawa is on the Ottawa River. The City of Hamilton and many others in Ontario are located either on or near one of the Great Lakes or on a river that is part of the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River system.  That includes Windsor. Believe me, there is not much about the City of Detroit, across the river from Windsor, that is capable of acting as a population magnet.

The City of Winnipeg is on the Red River and it started out its life as a fur trade post called Ft. Garry. Commerce and travel went north along that river, into Lake Winnipeg and from there up the great northern rivers to the fur trading posts on the shores of Hudson's Bay. The largest city in Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, is on the South Saskatchewan River. The cities of Edmonton and Prince Albert are on the North Saskatchewan River. These places were settled long before there was a country named the United States of America several hundred miles to the south of them. Even Vancouver, and the multitude of other cities in what we call the "lower mainland", are on the fertile delta of the Fraser River.

North of these rivers is bedrock and forest, which, although the source of furs, is incapable of supporting agriculture, which was the economic basis of our southern population and which, until recently, was the mode of living for all populations on the planet. The only population centres further north are the small single-industry towns that rely on mining, made possible by that massive sheet of rock known as the Canadian Shield, which, by the way, amounts to over 50% of Canada's landmass, and forestry, supported by the thin layer of soil on top of the Canadian Shield. Further north still, is tundra and permafrost, where nothing much of anything grows.

So that's why our population is where it is. It has nothing to do with the 49th parallel, and everything to do with the economic lifeblood of the nation throughout our history - furs, originally, and then agriculture and finally, forestry and mining. Got it?

Besides, Santa Clause lives in Canada, so be good, okay. But I still love ya.

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Stupid Crows

Normally, when the crows are back it's a sure sign of spring. Yesterday and today, while sitting out on my front steps (with my winter jacket and gloves on) I heard and saw crows flying around. They must be wondering what all that white stuff is and cursing the migrating instinct.

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Mr. Dyer Should Move To Saskatchewan





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Missed This...

...but I guess after 52 years it doesn't matter that much:

Cosmic Bash: Parties on Earth and Mars Celebrate Human Spaceflight

Fifty-two years ago Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, ushering in the final, intense competition of the Cold War. Thank God the Americans won. If they can just save themselves from oblivion now.

And speaking as a female, Yuri was kinda cute when he was young, wasn't he?

Quick now. Who was the first American in space?

And I didn't know Gagarin died while test-piloting a MiG-15. Learn sumtin new every day.

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Well, At Long Last

I'd never thought we'd see the day when China is actually cited as a major spewer of CO2, but here it is:

Feeling the heat of global warming
"China, the world's largest producer of carbon dioxide, is directly feeling the man-made heat of global warming, Canadian and Chinese scientists conclude in the first study to link the burning of fossil fuels to one country's rise in its daily temperature spikes.

China emits more of the greenhouse gas than the next two biggest carbon polluters - the United States and India - combined. And its emissions keep soaring by about 10 per cent per year."
[---]
"Those spikes, which often occur in late afternoon and the early morning, are what scientists say most affect people's health, plants and animals. People don't notice changes in averages, but they feel it when the daily high is hotter or when it doesn't cool off at night to let them recover from a sweltering day.

The study by Chinese and Canadian researchers found that just because of greenhouse gases, daytime highs rose 0.9 degree C in the 46 years up to 2007. At night it was even worse: Because of greenhouse gases, the daily lows went up about 1.7 degrees C."
I wonder how Beijing lets them get away with that? Maybe because the research was done in Canada:
"'It is way above what you would expect from normal fluctuations of climate," study author Xuebin Zhang, a research scientist with Environment Canada. "It is quite clear and can be attributed to greenhouse gases.'"
Cue leftards now. This has got to be part of "Harper's Hidden Agenda".

I hope Mr Xuebin Zhang has no relatives in China.


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This One Is Gonna Be Massive

Waiting for water to come

I was living in Manitoba in 1997 when the last massive Red River flood hit, and I thought that one was big.

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Hmmmmm.

Pakistan bars vote-seeking on religious grounds
"The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sunday barred the candidates in the general elections from seeking votes in the name of religion or sectarianism, Geo News reported."
[---]
"Issuing fresh directives, the Election Commission declared that driving out the voters from the polling stations would be treated as a crime, and providing free of cost transport facility, including vehicles and boats, would be a punishable act.

Canvassing within the perimeter of 400 yards from the polling booths and taking the ballot paper out from there also have been declared punishable crime."
I'll believe it when I see it. The election is scheduled for May 11.

Related:

Iran’s presidential hopefuls take aim at Ahmadinejad
"The growing field of hopefuls is generating fresh popular interest in an election that few believed would be competitive just a short while ago. That is in large part because candidates must be approved by Iran’s Guardian Council, a powerful body of clerics and jurists, half of whom are appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s traditional conservative factions — known as principlists for their loyalty to the founding principles of the Islamic republic — make up the largest number of expected candidates. But instead of a field limited to conservatives, who once counted Ahmadinejad among their ranks but came to see him as a threat to their dominance, a number of candidates who many analysts believed would sit out for fear of not passing the strict vetting process have stepped forward."
RTWT. Sounds to me like things might change, but not necessarily for the better.

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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Yup. The Great Climbdown...

...is now making headlines:

Lawrence Solomon: Climate changing for global warming reporters
"The overwhelming consensus on global warming among journalists may be cracking. Last week, the world’s most prestigious newsmagazine – The Economist – backed away from its past alarmist position, saying that “If climate scientists were credit-rating agencies, climate sensitivity would be on negative watch.” The Economist now discounts the high-end estimates of warming coming from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as being unlikely if not far-fetched."
Must be awfully difficult for those journalists that staked their careers on it.

At least they can now exhale CO2 without appearing to be hypocrites.

BTW, there's still two or three feet of snow on my front lawn. And it's the middle of freakin' April, for God's sake.

And all that money spent of sequestration and other silly projects? Will we get it back?

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Second Higgs-Boson?

A Second Higgs Boson? Physicists Debate New Particle

Heck. I didn't even understand the first one.

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What Do You Do...

..if you're an important world leader and a bevy of bare-breasted ladies come prancing in front of you?

Why, you watch it of course.  I mean, what else would you do?



Such is the life of a president of a powerful nation. Sigh.

H/T Snoopy the Goon

And what red-blooded security guard wouldn't want that job?

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Quote Of The Day...

...from Facebook: "(N)ever let anyone tell you you're good for nothing. You can always serve as a bad example."

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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Good Grief!!

I'm so annoyed at all this global warming we've been getting. The forecast for this here town is snow, snow, snow up to and including Sunday, April 14th.

Please make it go away.

Related:

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Random Thoughts

It seems April is a good month to die. I'm still alive but I'm not so sure about the kicking part.

So far this month there have been about four or five people who were prominent at one time or another during my younger days who have kicked the bucket including Ralph Klein, Maggie Thatcher, Reveen and Annette Funicello.

My Dad died in April way back in 1977. As his casket was being lowered into the grave a flock of Canada Geese flew over, cackling in their usual way. It was almost as though they were giving a final salute to the old soldier. Something to remember him by, in any case.

There's still several feet of snow covering my property, so I guess there will be no grave-side ceremonies for any local who croaks this year in April, whether or not there are flocks of geese to mark the occasion, and I don't think there will be any.

We're having a "slow melt" which is a good thing, I suppose, as both the provincial and local governments are furiously making plans to deal with flooding that is expected this spring, should it ever arrive. Better to be prepared than not.

One more random thought. In my younger days I was a news and politics junkie. But these days it seems that everything that happens has a familiar ring to it. Same old, same old. New names, perhaps. New location, in some cases, but still the same old stuff over and over and over.

I've been documenting absurdities on this here blog for quite some time now, but it seems nothing has really changed. Every generation produces it's absurdities and leaves a few of them unresolved for the next crop, who invariably blame the old folks. Some day soon, I'm going to produce a delicious rant about the younger folks and their propensity to blame everything under the sun on us Baby Boomers.  But, hell, nobody listens to old fogies.  That's about the only thing that never changes.

Oh, there's a meeting tonight at the local Town Hall, where the new assessments will be explained and the Town Council will be making presentations. I'm going to that. Might have something to say about that, but we'll see. My sister seems to think the Town will just lower the mill rate, so our taxes won't go up. You can bet that topic will be raised tonight.

Oh, and did you know, this is the 5100th blog entry I've made. Just thought I'd throw that in there for good measure.


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Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Damn Straight!!!

Howard defends decision to invade Iraq
"Mr Howard told the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Tuesday night the decision was taken in the belief that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, based on intelligence at that time."
[---]
"Mr Howard also hit out at claims by some that he led Australia into the 2003 Iraq war on the basis of a lie."
[---]
"Mr Howard said there was a "near universal" belief that Iraq had WMDs, including from former Labor leader Kevin Rudd.

"After the fall of Saddam, and when it became apparent that stockpiles of WMDs had - to me unexpectedly - not been found in Iraq, it was all too easy for certain people to begin claiming that Australia had gone to war based on a lie," Mr Howard said.

"Not only does [that claim] impugn the integrity of the decision-making process at the highest level, but also the professionalism and integrity of intelligence agencies here and elsewhere.

"Some of their key assessments proved to be wrong, but that is a world away from those assessments being the product of deceit and/or political manipulation.
And of course, the lovers of peace were outside demonstrating their commitment:
"The chants of street protesters could be heard faintly inside the city hotel where Mr Howard spoke.

The venue was switched from the nearby Lowy Institute after protestors caused a last-minute venue change."
Emphasis mine throughout.

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The Most Amazing Thing...

...about this is the guy keeps a straight face throughout the whole thing:

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Sunday, April 07, 2013

Tres Cool

UK archaeologists in Iraq find ancient complex near Ur, home of biblical Abraham
"Decades of war and violence have kept international archaeologists away from Iraq, where significant archaeological sites as yet unexplored are located. Still, the dig showed that such collaborative missions could be possible in parts of Iraq that are relatively stable, like its Shiite-dominated south."

Except for this part:
"Iraq faces a broader problem of protecting its archaeological heritage. Its 12,000 registered archaeological sites are poorly guarded."



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Has FDS Spread To Winnipeg

FDS is, of course, Ford Derangement Syndrome (Ford being Rod Ford, mayor of Toronto). Like BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome), which spread across the border and mutated to become Harper Derangement Syndrome, it seems a similar disorder is infecting our cities, too.

Seems some Winnipegers are out to get Mayor Katz.

I was living in Manitoba when Katz became mayor of Winnipeg. Although I didn't live in Winnipeg, Katz seemed to me to be a decent enough mayor.

What Katz did was a helluva lot more self-serving than what Ford did, too. But Katz is off the hook, and the judge got it right:
"The judge said Katz exhibited "bad political behaviour" and will have to be judged by the public at the next civic election in 2014. Throwing him out of office -- triggering a costly and time-consuming election -- would be the wrong move, she said."

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Friday, April 05, 2013

What Do You Do...

If you get your grant hoping to be the next big scare mongerer by showing the CATASTROPHIC consequences of ANTHROPOGENIC global warming, and by the time you're ready to publish your findings everything has moved out from under your feet?

Then you write articles like this one:
"Record low extents of Arctic sea ice in 2012 focused scientific and policy attention on climate changes in the high north, and to the implications of projected ice-free seasons in the Arctic within decades, the report says.

This opens opportunities for transport through the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route, extraction of potential oil and gas resources, and expanded fishing and tourism, according to the report."
Then let the commentators take over.




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Oh, The Memories

What was I? Fourteen or fifteen at the time? And my dad said we'd never hear about them "ten years from now". Well here it is, almost 50 years on:

The first chord of "A Hard Day's Night"



When all the baby-boomers are dead and gone, maybe. That may take a while, though.

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Scottish Separatist In The Making?

You Know We've Turned a Corner...

...when being drunk is no longer an excuse:

Judge doesn't buy Cup rioter’s ‘drunk’ defence

Too bad, fella. I hope you get the help you need. I hope you realize you need help.

In the meantime, hockey riots are most legitimate when done in Montreal, apparently. Look at the list:

Vancouver - 2011
Montreal - 2010
Montreal - 2008
Edmonton - 2006
Vancouver - 1994
Montreal - 1993
Montreal - 1986
Montreal - 1955

What is it about hockey that brings out such blinding, mind bending passion?

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Be Back Soon

Had a minor emergency which had to be fixed.

I.E. - my fridge died (may it rest in peace). Had to throw some moldy food out, but that was it. Had to buy ice and fill every possible container that was big enough with ice cubes to store the food while I was waiting for the new one to be delivered. And I was planning on buying new kitchen appliances anyway.

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to arrange all the stuff in the frig, and the number of "options" for which there is a setting on the oven is waaay overboard. I feel like I'm trying to navigate the Space Shuttle. What ever happened to simplicity?

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Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Good On Ya, Canada!

Canadian warship crew makes 500 kg heroin seizure
""It keeps the drugs off the streets and out of the hands of criminals, but it also has a massive impact on the finances of international terrorist organizations."

HMCS Toronto left Halifax in January. It is currently part of a international naval task force patrolling the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean."

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Bones And McDonald's

Never mind the hunt for Richard III, what about Boudicca?

As some of you may know, my avatar is an artist's depiction of the Celtic warrior maiden Boudicca, who led an ill-fated attempt to expel the Romans from Britain. I never knew her bones lie underneath a McDonald's restaurant, though. Does she order fries with her Big Mac?

Some funny comments below the article, too. Take these ones, for example:

"She died eating a Whopper..." (Paul Script)
==========================================
"My god seems like you cant put a garden in over there without finding some dead royalty" (Tim Brennan)
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"Boudiccia; no relation to Elizabeth Mk 2.

Does that make QE2 a pretender; and the UK a farce?" (How_delightful)

 "being a small r republican I think all monarchies are a farce lol. but being an american if the UK wants it none of my business." ( (Tim Brennan)

But would you (USA) carpet-bomb the UK (like Vietnam) if the UK went `Communist`?(How_delightful)

Only if U (UK) tried to make us drink tea again. (superpooperskooper)


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Oh Hell No

Just privatize it:

Options for the CBC:Alternative Roles for the National Public Broadcaster

If the Cons don't have the balls to do it, put the question to the people in a national referendum.

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