Well, to everybody's surprise, Kim was elected Chairman to the Defense Board of North Korea. On the news of his 687 to 0 win, "The nation's households emptied of housewives; the factories closed down; and the school children burst onto the streets--all were waving flowers and dancing.” Kim has been elected to this post since 1994, so any performance anxiety on his part was probably held in check.
And to think what boy Kim has had to endure to gain these accolades! Physically, he resembles the dwarf who played Mini-me in the Austin Powers' movies. To overcome this deficiency, he tends to wear macho clothes, which seem to strike a balance between Glorious Engineer and his dyke gym teacher's outfit. As though that were not disabling enough, he appears to suffer from prolonged bouts of social anxiety. Sometimes the adoring millions gather in stadiums and do that great placard thing--you know, where they block out a portrait of the Master of the Suns and Moons (a minor title--Daddy was the Master of the Universe). The problem is that The Father of his People just can't bring himself to attend. Maybe he remembers the assassination of half South Korea's cabinet in Burma by Daddy. Add teenage angst and confusion about Daddy's title as Benevolent Leader of All Peaceful Nations.
Despite these drawbacks, Kim has found a way to get his sublime messages to the adoring masses. In a stroke of inventive genius (Oh,Glorious Engineer!) he came upon a way of stopping his peoples' tendency to wander away from his six hour speeches on Juche, the guiding principle of self-reliance. He banned all radio stations, except his own propaganda station. Now, wouldn't Chretien like to be the Great Engineer? Abolish all the TV stations and just use the CBC. Give them only the news that you think is fit to print -- "Shawgigate, where did you hear that term? Not in Canada."
But, I digress from the triumphs of Kim, Huge Loincloth of the People's Glorious Two Million Man Armed Forces. Certain wimpish qualities should not deflect your gaze from a Man of Determination. Who else has the fortitude to baldly remind Seoul that it will be incinerated in three hours, should it get too cosy with the Capitalist Monkeys. Thank God The Terminator is running for governor. We will need his type when Kim, the newly re-elected Supreme Commmader of the Defense Board, raises his elfin hand to launch the obliterating attack on Seoul, and to toss a few, payback nukes at Japan.
A dear friend of mine once described the highly-controlled North Koreans as "the ultimate ant people". I beg to disagree, the ants could never boogie down over such honours given to their queen.
Bioterrorism expert Steve Quayle (stevequayle.com) and surveillance specialist Douglas Hagmann (hagmannpi.com) joined the program [Coast to Coast] on Tuesday to present their analysis of what they believe to be a heightened state of terror alert. "We're sensing a build-up," Quayle said, who sees "everything from a cyber attack, to an interruption in the power grid, to a concerted financial attack," as likely to happen within the next 30 days.
Hagmann concurred, saying that the threat "appears to be building to a crescendo." The possibilities for suicide bombings, and biological and chemical attacks happening within the US in the next year, are around 80%, he said. Even more alarming, Hagmann suggested the likelihood for a "dirty bomb" to be exploded here was 70-80% in the same time frame. Quayle believes should such attacks occur, the US will go after Pakistan, Iran and North Korea, countries he said were known for sponsoring such terrorism. And America's retaliatory wrath could involve the use of nuclear weapons, he said.
Bud, ordinarily a pacifist, is growing tired of the Palestinian martyrs. This classic Islamic wasteland that rivals Sudan, Mali, and Somailia (One public phone operating in Moglidishu) wants to terrorize Israel into submission. Well, Bud believes in tough love. Why don't the Israelis allow their own own fanatics (generally the orthodox crowd) to retaliate in kind? After all, we all know--don't we?--that Mossad was behind the 9/11 massacre, the U.S.S. Cole bombing, not to mention the Bali disaster. People with this sort of expertise, could surely help their crazies to plant a super-powerful bomb in the parade route of the Hamas lads. You can identify these boys by their masked faces and the AK-assault weapons--weapons that they love to shoot over their—and everyone else’s--heads. Ever wonder how many Palestinians are killed or wounded by the bullets that come back to ground (all of them)? The law of gravity seems to have eluded them.
In fact, the Israelis foiled a plot, at the last moment, to blow up a truck with a ton of explosives that would have levelled a Palestinian old age home and a girls’ school--a feat that the Palestinians never seem to replicate. Maybe the Isrealis have a higher degree of basic humanity.
Or as Bud recommended earlier, the Israelis should grant the Palestinians independence. Then any barbaric attack they commit against civilians could be met with carpet bombings of the Israelis’ choice.
A final thought. After wiping out another Hamas, Al-Asqua--fill in the blank with your favourite terrorist group--leader, the Israelis ban all demonstrations of breast-beating. Those wearing masks or shooting guns will be mowed down by helecopter gunships. Bud, in more bloodlust moments would hit the rewind button for that one.
I leave you with this quote; I don't recall the source, "You could give Arafat and the PLO Switzerland, and they would turn it into a sewer in one year."
By the way, Bud is not Jewish; in fact, Bud thinks all religions—with the possible exception of Zen Buddhism--are the opiate of the masses. Bud is not a follower of Marx either; he just loves that phrase.
P.S. Did you realize that every player in the big commie revolution--Lenin, Stalin, and Trotski--was known by his nickname--sort of like the PLO leaders? Maybe Arafat keeps his creds by actually using his real name.
I must admit that I have Maritime roots. Up to grade six I lived in NS, at which point my parents moved to B.C. the Beautiful. My childhood was a guilt free existence. It took years to remember the injustices that Amherst's black folk endured.Raymond comes to mind. Here was a 20 year old man sitting in my grade six class. The teacher gave him a special desk at the back, one sent down from the high school. She was unfaillingly polite to him. "Raymond, do you want to take the math test today?" she would ask. Depending on whether his meat-lugging night at the abbatoir was heavy or light, he would give his answer.
Raymond, wearing his sweat-soaked leather jacket, was seated well at the back because he smelled -- also, to keep him separated from the female students, over whom he cast a roving male's eye. His favourite girl was also mine – Mary, a stunningly cute mulatto. Raymond would make 'subtle' comments on her physical charms. Her replies were invariably, "Shut up! You dumb nigger!" I never confided to Raymond my own suicidal affection for her, but I suspect Raymond spotted me trying to look up her dress--the dropped pencil ploy--and respected my leaving the field to him.
One day I left school to discover Reggie, another black student, age 16, sitting on my bike. My entreaties to get off amounted to nothing. Despairing, I prepared to leave for home on foot. We actually thought nothing of walking two miles home in those days. As I walked away, Raymond came around the corner. He assessed the situation immediately. Without saying a word, he went over and cold-cocked Reggie, leaving him in a puddle of fallen bikes. Raymond turned and said, "There you have your bike back." I never had trouble from the older black students again. I later asked him why he came to school at all. He told me, "Because it is warmer than home."
Thinking of Raymond made me think of all the other injustices that he and others faced daily. Negroes were confined to "N****r Heaven", meaning the balconies of threatres. Nor do I remember them eating in local restaurants. It was only when I travelled to the U.S. South that I saw Amherst's black condition writ large. The slums of Birmingham, Alabama and other southern cities in the 60's could have rivalled Soweto's. Later in life, I noticed the similarities between the favelas and our own "N*****r Hill". I can only hope that Mary, Reggie, and especially, Raymond, have had a better life than that meted out to them in Amherst in the my childhood.
OK, OK, I know the title is a mixed metaphor, but somehow it defines the theme of this blog. The National Post is, as usual, a fund of information on how the public purse is being managed. In this case it reports the skinny on the fat cat bureaucracy which wastes our tax dollars.
Items mentioned all come from the National Post, Sept. 9th A-7. Francois Beaudoin, former president of The Business Development Bank of Canada, is suing the BDC to get back his pension of $200,000 a year; plus, mais oui, his $250,000 severance pay. You will remember the BDC as the trough where Chretien strong armed some BDC flunky into giving hefty loans to a couple of gangsters in Shawinigan.
Countering Beaudoin's claim are BDC lawyers who maintain that Beaudoin secretly set up a program to give senior directors a huge pension package--a platinum parachute if you will. The new directive would have increased his pension from $260,000 to $450,000. I realize that this might sound mean-spirited, but doesn't this seem obscenely generous?
Beaudoin's lawyer contends his client is the victim of a political vendetta, because he wanted to call in the $615,000 loan that Chretien had finagled for the owner of the Auberge Grand-mere.
It appears that Robert Ghiz, son of former PEI Premier Joe Ghiz, was given "special leave" to operate out of Ottawa and move to his home province – but he remained on the government payroll until mid-February, when he announced his run for the Premiership. Besides the irregular treatment afforded him, there is the question of his hospitality expenses that exceeded George Radwanski's--and we know what expensive tastes the former Privacy Commissioner had.
Ah the CBC looms as a target yet again. If the CBC were a bird, it would resemble the dodo. It simply cannot fly, nor even run fast enough, to avoid being thumped. Now the CBC is going to expand from its niche of showing goon hockey and left-wing agitprop to bringing us BLOCKBUSTER movies. Recent fare was Pretty Woman. This is a 1990 film that has been aired to death. Bud has learned that the bootylicous shots of Roberts were done by a body double--"Hi, I'm here for Julia's close-up butt shot." That kind of fraud fits right in with CBC's claim to be Canada's "public service" broadcaster.
With a near billion dollar budget the CBC should be doing shows that are Canadian. If they must show movies, let them be Canadian. At least we would see something for the taxpayer bucks that support them. Most Canadians have access to movie and sports channels; therefore, they do not need the CBC to give them more. Besides which CBC has no business competing in the commercial ad markets against the private TV companies.
The CBC can produce some good programs, such as North of 60, The Red Green Show, Witness, and Marketplace. All showcased some unique side of Canadiana. Paying for 13 year old movies just doesn't cut it.
Irbil — A suicide car bomber struck the U.S. intelligence headquarters here, a Kurdish security official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
He said three Iraqis were killed, including a 12-year-old boy.
Six Americans were wounded, three of them with serious injuries to their abdomen caused by flying glass.
The official said 41 Iraqis were hurt, adding that the suicide bomb vehicle was packed with TNT.
He said several homes in the neighbourhood, which was cordoned off by U.S. soldiers, were destroyed.
[. . . .]
U.S. soldiers had flown to the site by helicopter and were guarding the area together with local Iraqi Kurdish fighters.
The wounded included children from nearby houses and Iraqi Kurdish guards.
Irbil is the largest city in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Shane Slaughter, U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said that the six injured Americans were Department of Defence personnel.
An annual injection that takes the pleasure out of nicotine could be the key to preventing former smokers falling victim to their old cigarette craving.
British researchers developing the vaccine, which has completed its first round of trials on volunteers, say the jab is unlikely to help smokers quit, but might prevent a relapse several months on.
It could even be possible for parents to vaccinate teenagers against nicotine, although researchers concede that this would raise ethical questions. A vaccine for cocaine has also begun clinical trials with similar results.
The drug works by alerting the body's immune system to the presence of nicotine in the blood. Nicotine molecules are normally too small to trigger an immune reaction and slip through the blood-brain barrier undetected.
The vaccine turns them into a target for antibodies by attaching a marker protein. With the antibody attached, the nicotine molecule is too big to get into the brain and so cannot trigger the smoker's high.
Ottawa — Few Canadians have ever heard of Mac Harb, a Liberal MP from Ottawa who toils on the back bench, but yesterday he was given a $105,000-a-year job for 25 years when Jean Chrétien appointed him to the Senate — his reward for more than a decade of loyalty during which he fought the Prime Minister's foes.
In naming Mr. Harb to the Senate, Mr. Chrétien has finally put to rest the rumours that have been swirling around official Ottawa for years now that Mr. Harb had been promised a Senate seat for humiliating John Turner nearly 15 years ago, and for delivering slates and slates of delegates from eastern Ontario to help Mr. Chrétien defeat Paul Martin in the 1990 leadership race.
The appointment also underscores the bitter rivalry between Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Martin, and threatens to set off another battle between the two camps if long-time Martinite Richard Mahoney fights staunch Chrétien supporter Penny Collenette — the wife of Transport Minister David Collenette — for the Liberal nomination in Mr. Harb's coveted riding.
[. . . .]
His was one of three Senate appointments the Prime Minister made yesterday. Also named were Dr. Marilyn Trenholme Counsell, 70, the former lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick; and Quebec consumer protection advocate Madeleine Plamondon. (who just happens to come from Shawinigan and will sit as an independent)
Ms. Plamondon, 71, is from the Prime Minister's hometown of Shawinigan but has never been affiliated with any political party. She will sit in the Senate as an independent.
The appointments leave three vacancies in the Senate — one each in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alberta. However, there is the possibility the Prime Minister could make another appointment in Quebec if he stays until his planned February retirement. Liberal Senator Leo Kolber is to retire in January.
Last June, the Prime Minister appointed his chief of staff, Percy Downe, to the Red Chamber; Mr. Downe, 49, will sit until 2029.
He is doing what the Liberals have done for years--stack the SCOC, the Senate, the civil service, and every other position where it is possible to appoint a Liberal--and then see what happens to the next non-Liberal Prime Minister. Did anyone really believe the statements made by Stephen Harper were too far off the mark? He should have just extended the list of categories a bit.
Party policy backs same-sex marriage, leader says after MP indicates opposition
OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jack Layton said he won't tolerate "loosey-goosey views on human rights" after a Manitoba MP indicated she would break party ranks to vote against same-sex-marriage legislation.
"It's not okay in our party to have loosey-goosey views on human rights," Mr. Layton said in an interview yesterday. "This isn't a question of personal views or personal morality. It's an issue of moral rights."
Who determines whether something is a question of personal views or personal morality? What underpins this particular aspect of morality, Jack Layton? And who decides what is morally right? with which everyone in the party must agree?
But he would not say whether he would fire Churchill MP Bev Desjarlais if she defies a 1999 party resolution that calls for all New Democratic MPs to support same-sex-marriage legislation. [She has said she would defy Layton.]
[. . . .]
Nearly one-third of the Liberal caucus has said they would vote against the government's bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
Can you imagine the political correctness quotient of another NDP government in Ontario -- and how much it will cost taxpayers as they try to satisfy all their disadvantaged groups?
Paul Martin, the man set to become Canada's next prime minister, said today that a new deal for Ontario cities and a bigger say in immigration would be easier to get if the province elects a Liberal government on Oct. 2.
[. . . .]
Forging a new deal for cities and an expanded say in immigration policy would be a better bet if Dalton McGuinty becomes premier.
"I certainly believe so, absolutely," he said.
Then, damage contol . . .
A spokesman later said Martin would work with a government of any stripe, although "the opportunity for a more collaborative relationship would be present under a Liberal banner."
Another little gift from Mr Chretien to Mr Martin.
OTTAWA: The RCMP will soon lay charges in relation to a massive investigation of Ottawa's sponsorship program, The Globe and Mail has learned.
[. . . .]
The politically charged investigation started last year over revelations in The Globe and Mail that Groupaction Marketing Inc. was paid $1.6-million to produce three reports, including one that is missing and two that are incomplete.
Don’t you just love it? JC leaves more mess to his successor, Paul Martin—who, by the way, is not deigning to give any substance to his policies after Liberal Party's Crowning.
Then we have Bill Graham, Minister of External Affairs, whose outrage at the Saudis has come a little late for Bill Sampson – and for anyone who reads current news at all. Your embassies protecting you abroad! -- meanwhile ushering in more refugees and immigrants with questionable, possibly terrorist ties or completely unknown backgrounds – their documents mysteriously having fallen into the toilet, I suppose, on the flight here. And of course, many are released to return for immigration hearings under their own volition. The Liberals protecting Canadians as usual!
Bill Sampson's case is a greater indictment of Canadian policy than it is of Saudi Arabia, about which we shouldn't harbour illusions.
What could Canada have done for Sampson in prison? Easy, we should have been prepared to expel the Saudi ambassador, cut cultural and trade relations, ban Saudis from entering Canada, treat that country as an enemy if necessary.
Doesn't it just warm your heart that not only immigrants, but British-born Muslims also are celebrating Osama's 9/11 bombing, and then think of the recent upward trends in Canada's Muslim immigration. Jihadi celebrations will come to a mosque near you. Note the stated plans of Al-Muhajiroun and think about whether Canada screens out extremists like these -- or monitors what is spewed in Canadian mosques. There appears to be no quality control for extremists entering Canada -- nor for lying illegals who subvert the system and get to stay here anyway.
The extremist Islamic group al-Muhajiroun is organising four rallies across Britain this week to commemorate what it calls "The Magnificent 19" hijackers who carried out the September 11 atrocities.
The Home Office promises that "every word and every statement" spoken at the events in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leicester will be monitored by police and intelligence services for breaches of incitement or public order legislation.
But the authorities are essentially powerless to prevent the conferences or to block the provocative advertising used to promote them.
Posters and stickers advertising the events have appeared in inner-city areas with large Muslim populations. They carry pictures of the 19 hijackers around a backdrop of the World Trade Centre in flames and a smiling Osama bin Laden. The posters state: "The Magnificent 19 that divided the world on September 11th."
The London rally will be held tomorrow, the second anniversary of the attacks, with the other conferences following over the weekend. Al-Muhajiroun plans 19 speakers, each telling the life story of one of the hijackers.
Abu Omar, the name used by a spokesman for the group, told the BBC this week that the actions of the hijackers were "completely justified" and "quite splendid" and that any Muslim who thought otherwise was an "apostate".
[. . . .]
He [Mr. Choudary, a solicitor born and educated in Britain] claims that al-Muhajiroun, which has an office in Tottenham, north London, has "significant support" among young Muslims in urban communities and branches in 30 towns and cities which organise bookstalls, public meetings and discussion circles.
It argues that it does not recruit or train recruits for jihad or holy war. However, its stated aim is an Islamic revolution in Britain and the establishment of the Khilafah - a fundamentalist Islamic state.
Al-Muhajiroun is viewed with some disdain by many hardline Islamists, but its ability to inflame Muslim youth is a matter for concern for the authorities. Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Hanif, the British suicide bombers who died in Israel in May, both had links with al-Muhajiroun.
Note this -- and don't you feel reassured?
***It argues that it does not recruit or train recruits for jihad or holy war. However, its stated aim is an Islamic revolution in Britain and the establishment of the Khilafah - a fundamentalist Islamic state.***
People with dyslexia and other learning difficulties are usually poor at other mental skills as well, according to a study of twins that is expected to reignite the debate over the meaning of intelligence.
In recent years the medical and educational professions have tended to "compartmentalise" mental abilities and disorders, so that children with dyslexia are said to have reading difficulties, but are thought to be otherwise of normal intelligence. The same applies for dyscalculia, which causes problems with mathematics, and other learning difficulties.
This is not usually the case, however, the British Association Festival of Science, in Salford, was told by Prof Robert Plomin, the deputy director of the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, in London. He has evidence that a common set of brain mechanisms - and genes – underpins a wide range of mental skills.
[. . . .]
Prof Plomin is no stranger to controversy. He left America to work in Britain because of hostility towards his earlier research on the genetic contribution to intelligence, or as he calls it "general cognitive ability", or "g". [See the article below.]
He said the new finding had come from the largest study of twins ever conducted in Britain - the Twins Early Development Study, which began with all twins born in England during 1994-96. It followed 15,000 children at the ages of two, three, four and seven in 7,500 twin pairs.
Analysis of the findings showed that "genes for common learning disabilities - such as language impairment, reading disability and maths disability - are generalists".
If genes were linked with a reading disability, there was a 70 per cent chance that they would also affect maths ability. "In other words, genetic 'diagnoses' differ from traditional diagnoses in that reading and maths disabilities are largely the same thing genetically."
The study also shows that genes that affect common learning disabilities are also responsible for normal variation in learning abilities.
[. . . .]
His work, however, also shows that the environment plays a key role, particularly early in development, giving opportunities for remedial teaching and training to overcome some disabilities.
Prof Plomin's work revives an idea put forward in 1904 by Charles Spearman, who noticed that all cognitive abilities correlated at least moderately. "Spearman referred to this overlap as general cognitive ability or 'g', which is assessed using measures of diverse cognitive processes such as IQ tests," said Prof Plomin.
Note this:
***His work, however, also shows that the environment plays a key role, particularly early in development, giving opportunities for remedial teaching and training to overcome some disabilities.***
THE first gene that influences human intelligence has been found by scientists, a discovery with huge social and educational implications.
The research could herald the development of genetic tests to target potential high-flyers, pave the way to IQ-boosting "smart drugs" and will raise fears that embryos that lack smart genes could be aborted. The gene, believed to the first of many that contribute to normal intelligence, has been found after a six-year search by a team headed by Prof Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
. . . . Neuroscientists will now study how this gene works to affect the functioning of the brain, ending years of argument over whether genes can affect intelligence. "It is harder to argue with a piece of DNA."
Prof Plomin, Dr Thalia Eley and colleagues analysed genetic material from blood donated from several groups to find a genetic marker linked to general intelligence. They used new molecular genetic techniques to compare the genes of children of different abilities: two groups of average ability, and children of "super-high ability" who attended a summer school designed for them by Iowa State University.
[. . . .]
The team sought genetic markers that differed between the control children and the smart children, focusing on chromosome six. They found a link between intelligence and a gene called IGF2R on the long arm of the chromosome. . . . .
The find marks the first piece of the puzzle of how genetics contributes to human intellect, compared with influences such as education and upbringing. . . . . "Should we invest in people who have more potential, or should we compensate those who have possibly less genetic potential?"
However, Dr David King, editor of GenEthics News, who has campaigned against Prof Plomin's research, said the discovery would harden the public belief in genetic determinism, that everything we are is determined by genes. As a Jew, he was "horrified" by the eugenic implications, for instance, in the screening of unborn children.
