The disaster from India to Indonesia is all over the news. Absolutely devastating. There is no point in linking, given the proliferation of news reports. There was only one item related to it that might be of interest here.
India’s nuclear weaponisation facility at Kalpakkam was threatened by the tsunamis from the Bay of Bengal. Water from the sea entered the complex and a wall in the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant and the Madras Atomic Power Station caved in.
An army battalion stationed in Chennai was deployed to drain out the water and act on an emergency. Following a scare about the extent of the damage, a spokesperson for the Crisis Management Group in New Delhi said: “All precautions have been taken and the Kalpakkam atomic plant is fully safe.”
Beefed-up security curtails cross-border drug trade
Putting it in context, at least it's a step in the right direction. If they can get drugs through, they can get terrorists through. $257 million out of a $25 billion drug trade is still only 1% interdiction rate. Too bad the government wasn't really interested in Canadian security or else the success rate would be higher. The front line officers are doing their best despite the constraints on their budgets -- no shortage of funds for the gun registry or Parliament's renovations though.
VANCOUVER — Major drug busts at Canadian borders have plunged by almost 20 per cent this year, a sign that pumped-up security measures have cut into the illicit narcotics trade.''We're making headway, shutting down criminal organizations,'' RCMP Constable Alex Borden said.
But authorities warned the drop may be temporary, until international criminal organizations find more creative ways to penetrate the country's ports, airports and border crossings.
"We find when we shut down one organization, another starts up," Constable Borden said. "There is always someone to pick up the slack because there is money to be made, a product to distribute and a large market demanding [the drugs]."
National statistics compiled by the Canadian Border Services Agency show that border officers made 866 significant seizures of drugs as of Nov. 30, with a street value of $252.7-million.
Previously, the number of seizures of drugs destined for Canada from the United States increased each year since 2000, peaking in 2003 with 1,063. The street value of drugs confiscated at the border last year was estimated at $600-million. [. . . . ]
Cocaine, hot guns seized -- Police charge four people after making London's biggest bust of the year.
"Nobody sits in their room and smokes crack. If they're into that, they're into other stuff to support their addiction," Arbing said, adding prostitution, robbery and weapons offences are often linked to drug use.
Cocaine, hot guns seized Kelly Pedro, London Free Press, Dec. 26, 04 (may be a copy of one from Dec. 6, 04)
[. . . . ] Police also found a kilogram of powder cocaine, worth $100,000 -- one of the largest single seizures ever for London police -- and $20,000 worth of crack cocaine.
The bust at 1207 Huron St., near McNay Street, came after months of work, some based on probes several years ago.
Brent Abrams, 22, of Scarborough, Jahvashala St. Louis, 24, Sadia Cruikshank, 25, and Omar Peters, 21, all of London, are charged with almost 90 counts of drug, trafficking and firearm offences. [. . . . ]
Ho Hum, Criminal Charges for Liberal Aides -- These indictments allege corruption of major government deals. So why the big yawn?
Don't miss reading the comments on the page! Why? Just read.
[. . . . The charges] never mention the separate spur line agreement at all. They say that the exchange of favours that is at the heart of the case involve unspecified matters of government business "including a bid by OmniTRAX to obtain the operating rights of B.C. Rail from the Government of British Columbia." That sounds much more like the deal for the whole railway, even though OmniTRAX did not end up being the successful bidder for those operating rights. (CN Rail was the winning bidder.)
[. . . . ] Aneal Basi is Dave Basi's cousin and he has worked for the Campbell government for about three years. He is only just 24, and his previous claim to fame was as an exceptionally good field hockey player who made the Canadian national team. He was, until taking a leave of absence a couple of months ago, working as a "public information officer" in the transport ministry – the main home of the B.C. Rail deal. Although it might sound like one, this was not a civil service job. He was a political appointee, given the post through a cabinet order back in 2002. Indeed, the first mention of his name in connection with anything political occurs in March 2001 (just before the election) when he was introduced in the legislature by ex-finance minister Gary Collins as an enthusiastic Young Liberal. Collins, who quit cabinet and caucus just a week ago to become head of Harmony Airways, was also the person who handpicked Dave Basi, another enthusiastic Young Liberal, to be his chief ministerial assistant when he was given the finance minister's job in 2001.
Aneal's name had never surfaced publicly before during the year-long investigation. And the charges against him are particularly interesting. He faces two counts, both of money laundering. In essence, he is charged with helping Dave Basi to commit the offences of fraud and breach of trust, by laundering the money that he took. All of which begs those two key questions of: where did the money come from in the first place? And just how was Aneal Basi able to hide and launder it? But no matter what the answers are to those questions, the implication is clear: money actually did change hands, because there was money that needed to be laundered.
Who allegedly bought influence?
That leads to the other interesting question: just who are the persons on the other side of these clandestine handshakes, and why do their names not appear in the criminal charges, even as other potential accused? If Dave Basi was accepting money in return for using, or promising to use, his influence on provincial matters, someone must have been giving him that money. It would not be a huge leap to draw the conclusion that that someone must have known that they were also complicit in any criminal offence that was being committed. Yet no other names appear on the charges. [emphasis ed's . . . . ]
Feminists and Equality -- It's all about revenge, not equality
One of the biggest lies perpetuated by modern-day feminists is the contention that feminism is about equality. Feminists aren't interested in equality. What they want is revenge.
[. . . . ] The truth is, equality isn't so important for feminists when the person seeking parity is a guy. Equal treatment only applies when it benefits women. And that's why feminism just doesn't add up.
Read the details between those two paragraphs. She makes the case very well.
PRIME MINISTER Paul Martin and his family were enjoying Christmas yesterday at a luxury resort in the Arab Muslim kingdom of Morocco.
[. . . . ] Oh, and Bush spent his Christmas with his family at Camp David, near Washington. Unlike Martin, he's keeping his hand firmly on the levers of government throughout the Christmas and New Year's season.
It's called being in charge -- running the government.
Canadians of consequence -- well said!
Fisher's article was inspired by the CBC project "The Greatest Canadian" -- the saddest list possible for a publicly funded broadcaster, in my opinion. Fisher is worth reading on this.
[. . . . Northrup] Frye had had much to say about "greatness." He offers a score or so of choices for "the greatest" in the recent book, Northrop Frye Unbuttoned. The greatest book in the bible: Genesis. The greatest novel: War and Peace. The greatest form of prose: The Utopia. The greatest mind of modern times: Shakespeare.
I leave you with this dissection of "greatness" by Frye: "There is no such thing as a great man; it's only that some men can do jobs well that we think important, and greatness always relates to the job and never to the man .... Everyone agrees to call Beethoven a genius, but he was only a man with a knack for writing music." So there!
December 26, 2004 -- Well before Kojo Annan became embroiled in an ugly financial scandal, he was lying about his work experience, demonstrating poor business judgment and hiding at least one other scandal from his father, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, The Post has learned.
The most brazen deception occurred five years ago when he claimed to own a top-ranked Nigerian soccer team — which is in fact state-owned — while taking over a lowly Swiss team.
And when the man he appointed to run the Swiss team's operations was jailed for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars, Kojo didn't breathe a word of the scandal to his father. [. . . . ]
The Notwithstanding Clause Has Been Used in Quebec so, why tell TROC not to use it? -- Poisonous Fruits Of Bilingualism -- "the first use of Section 33, the "notwithstanding clause" of the Constitution"
Poisonous Fruits Of Bilingualism Barry Cooper, National Post (Canada), March 14, 2003, Comment; In Calgary, A16, Arizona State University website
[. . . . ] By drawing so much attention to Quebec and the language issue, the federal government had legitimized a limitless sense of grievance. Ottawa unawares had enhanced separatism.
[. . . . ] Remember what happened: In 1974, Bill 22 made French the sole official language in Quebec. It was followed by Bill 101; by acrimonious litigation; by the first use of Section 33, the "notwithstanding clause" of the Constitution; and by growing anglophone impatience. Terrorists firebombed a coffee shop in Montreal in the name of linguistic purity. Following the Canadian Grand Prix auto race, Jacques Villeneuve ran afoul of the law by naming his nightclub after his own nickname, "Newtown." The United Nations Human Rights Commission then got involved, objecting to the language police measuring the size of English and French letters on commercial signs. They thought Quebec had violated freedom of expression, which the UN was sworn to uphold. Such were the first poisonous fruits of government action on the bilingualism front. [. . . . ]
Dutch doctor defiant over killing newborns Government to approve new protocol protecting physicians who euthanize
[. . . . ] Voluntary euthanasia is already legal in the Netherlands for anyone above the age of 12. Between 4,000 and 5,000 people have been euthanized since 2002.
"It makes you shiver to see babies suffer such enormous pain caused by their deformities, especially when you know that life expectancy is extremely low," says Verhagen. "Right now in all countries doctors are forced to find a solution behind the curtain. We want to shine a spotlight on this, to have clear rules so that no doctor is left facing a murder charge."
In 1997, tacit legal permission to euthanize was granted when the government refused to sentence a doctor found guilty of medically killing an infant. But Verhagen and other doctors want explicit permission and that's why they've been reporting their "crimes" to the authorities. [. . . . ]
It is one thing to be horrified at the taking of a life--newborns with severe disabilities--when you do not look after that life; it is quite another to know the toll it takes. Those who demand that these children live must expect to join in taking care of them. I don't have much time for the right-to-lifers who talk--but do not have to act--caring for the babies who never become independent children, teens or adults, caring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for years and years and years. The toll on the whole family involved is enormous.
I have a very hard time with this one though, on the other hand, I believe that from the moment of conception, that joining of cells is life.
The discussion on Sharia Law earlier in the week brought out opposing viewpoints on Islam and its philopsphy. This excerpt from an article by Daniel Pipes on militant versus moderate Islam ran in the Jerusalem Post on November 26, 2003 and helps to define these issues in the context of western values: [. . . . ]
If militant Islam is the problem and moderate Islam is the solution, as I often argue, how does one differentiate between these two forms of Islam?
It is often useful to ask questions. Such questions might include:
The questions concern: violence, modernity, secularism, Islamic pluralism, self-criticism, defense against militant Islam, goals in the West -- all with questions that need to be answered. The Canadian Coalition for Democracies is always worth checking.
