* Update 3: Text of Democrat Zell Miller's Speech at the Republican National Convention -- Simply Superb -- heartfelt
* Update 2: "High end homes: high end grow-ops -- only 20,000 more grow-ops to go in Canada whose security forces are undermanned and underfunded" -- This is related to and background for the following article posted Sept. 1, 04.
* Update 1: Palestinians Are Trapped by Their Own Culture
* The East Coast wants a bigger lotto fix -- "Playsphere is Canada's first online lottery ticket sales system, and will allow residents of the four eastern provinces to play Lotto 6/49, * Super 7 and other lotteries on their home computers" -- Just the kind of "economic development" the "have-not", perennially poor Maritimes needs!
* N.S. hopes to lure more immigrants to East Coast, but it's a tough sell -- My Commentary on government policies on immigration and refugees -- and a prime example follows.
* A prime example of what our courts, IRB, and governments (usually, Liberal) have imported to Canada and then allowed to stay -- Valuable immigrants like these who simply breed here, then are allowed stay on "compassionate" grounds!
* Air Canada uniform theft raises fears -- U.S. intelligence agencies worry airline's clothing could be used for terror plot: Al-Qaeda suspected
* Barbarism: "The video of the Nepalese showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently slitting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. The blindfolded man moaned and a shrill wheeze was heard. The masked man then displayed the head to the camera before resting it on the body."
* Joe Clark? Sleeping with the enemy? The only enemy Red Tory Joe has had is conservatism
* Kawasaki Heavy, Alstom, Bombardier Win China Rail Contracts
* Logic and Sanity Site: Several updates on the situation of the school seized in Russia
* New HIV risk for drug users -- drug running involved
* Canadian Professional Police Association: "it's time to review prisoner release programs."
* Victims of Violence -- Example: Melvin Stanton
* Vernon: Controversial halfway house to be razed
* Woman Lucky To Be Alive After Being Severely Beaten And Left For Dead
* Home Invader Clinging To Life After Being Hit By Bat
* No money for security? For health? Can our politicians be cured?
* In Japan, the crime rate also rises
* THE CONTRARIAN -- Taking on mainstream media, Fox's Hume faces political views head-on
Text of Democrat Zell Miller's Speech at the Republican National Convention -- Simply Superb -- heartfelt
[. . . .] President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."
In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee.
And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man. He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.
And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.
Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.
Where are such statesmen today?
Where is the bipartisanship in this country when we need it most?
Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq (news - web sites) and the mountains of Afghanistan (news - web sites), our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief.
What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?
I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny. [. . . .]
I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together. I admire this man. I am moved by the respect he shows the first lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.
I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.
He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter and, where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.
I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel.
The man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.
This election will change forever the course of history, and that's not any history. It's our family's history. [. . . . ]
Palestinians Are Trapped by Their Own Culture Irshad Manji, September 1, 2004. Irshad Manji is host of TV Ontario's "Big Ideas" and the author of "Palestinians Are Trapped by Their Own CultureThe Trouble With Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith" (St. Martin's Press, 2004).
Tuesday's simultaneous bus bombings in Israel, carried out at a time when the Sharon government insists on withdrawing from Gaza, raises a basic question: Why is peaceful coexistence taking so long in the Holy Land? It's because there isn't only one occupation of the Palestinian territories. There are two.
[. . . . ] "What's the difference," I asked, "between 'suicide' and 'martyrdom,' as you folks now call it?"
"Suicide," he replied, "is done out of despair. But most of our martyrs were very successful in their earthly lives."
Hindi's answer floored me. By his own admission, what drives so many of today's suicide bombers isn't that which the material world has failed to deliver to them, but something besides — perhaps the Koran's promises for the afterlife or, perhaps more precisely, Palestinian culture's ideological exploitation of the Koran's promise of paradise. [. . . . ]
Irshad is intelligent in interviews. As an admitted lesbian, she has a unique perspective. As a Muslim woman, she is also fortunate to be in the West.
High end homes: high end grow-ops -- only 20,000 more to go in Canada whose security forces are undermanned and underfunded for all the criminal activity
This is background which is related to an article on importing Vietnamese truckers to Canada for those of you who screamed "racist" at me for my article on this Sept. 1, 04.
In ritzy Royal Oaks Estates the houses are "high-end,' and so is the marijuana, say the RCMP.
Thirteen suspects whom police described only as "being of Vietnamese descent" are expected to appear in Moncton provincial court today on charges connected to a months-long RCMP investigation that climaxed in dramatic fashion yesterday.
Police seized more than 5,000 plants of "high-end marijuana," said RCMP "J' Division media relations officer Sgt. Gary Cameron, meaning expensive, highly concentrated pot destined for markets outside the province with a potential "street value' exceeding $10 million.
[. . . . ] One, at 16 Fraser St. in Moncton, is described as "the nest," where marijuana "farmers' - apparently also sophisticated technicians adept at stealing electricity and concealing their multi-million-dollar crimes - slept and ate between rounds of cultivating basement plots in the other 14 scattered widely over the city and its fringes.
[. . . . ] Arsenault's mysterious "neighbours' occupied a $300,000 luxury home with glowing hardwood floors, expansive windows, a lovely kitchen area and 1,000 pot plants in the basement.
They were growing under a canopy of 50 enormous, 400-watt 'grow-bulbs' - like 50 miniature suns that police estimate would consume about $500 worth of electricity in a single month.
[. . . . ] Officers inside the home told reporters the occupants had cut a hole right through the concrete foundation, located the underground power cable and hooked their own transformer to it so they could rob NB Power to run their grow lights. Power theft is, in fact, hard to detect, said Eugene Giroux, NB Power's manager of operations for eastern New Brunswick.
The cops called Giroux in to cut the power before they moved in, given the enormous amount of electricity in use, the potential for short-outs in homemade circuitry and the vats of potentially volatile fertilizer and other chemicals in the home. [. . . . ]
Link to get the addresses where the grow-ops existed. Check out how neighbours might have known something was going on.
Who do you think pays for the stolen electricity, for rehabilitating the houses used for grow-ops? Why is pot so easy to obtain in the schools? Whose children are affected? Whose children learn that it appears to be "easy money" and that, it appears to harm no-one else -- as do heroin and crack? Which government is discussing legalizing possession of small quantities of pot, but not the growing nor selling of it? How are these people supposed to obtain it -- if not illegally? How confusing to young people. Get the criminals out of it. If it is so harmless, grow it openly in fields, not homes, tax it and sell it. Get rid of the criminal element. Otherwise, admit it is harmful and take another tack.
The East Coast wants a bigger lotto fix -- Atlantic Lottery Corporation -- "Playsphere is Canada's first online lottery ticket sales system, and will allow residents of the four eastern provinces to play Lotto 6/49, Super 7 and other lotteries on their home computers" -- Just the kind of "economic development" the have-not Maritimes needs!
CORNWALL, P.E.I. - Jackpot! You can almost hear the shareholders of Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) pumping their fists in the air and yelling about their good fortune. In the past couple of weeks, the gambling agency has successfully launched a new Atlantic-wide online lottery site, and announced a major deal with the Charlottetown Driving Park in Prince Edward Island for a so-called "racino" with horse racing and video lottery terminals (VLTs).
[. . . . ] Playsphere is Canada's first online lottery ticket sales system, and will allow residents of the four eastern provinces to play Lotto 6/49, Super 7 and other lotteries on their home computers. If ALC has rolled the dice properly, online ticket sales will mean an increase of 1% to3% in sales (or some $17- to $30-million) over the next five years.
Not content with that, ALC is also investing $25-million to upgrade the Charlottetown Driving Park into a racino, adding more than 200 VLTs along with simulcast horse racing. In return for its largesse, the corporation will own and operate the facility. Once the Charlottetown track has been converted, ALC plans to do likewise with the Summerside Raceway.
The racino plan has already hooked the attention of the New Brunswick government, which is now contemplating converting a number of its provincial harness race tracks into similar "entertainment centres."
It's not hard to understand why ALC is taking such an aggressive approach. Having seen sales for more traditional lottery products such as Scratch-and-Win and Lotto 6/49 plummet by $10-million last year, it's under pressure to find new ways to attract gamblers.
VLTs -- often dubbed the crack cocaine of gambling -- are an obvious choice. Even while ticket sales dropped, VLT revenues from PEI and New Brunswick helped push ALC's profit to a record $401-million in 2003.
While Playsphere doesn't go so far as to offer any VLT-style games, the online format makes it easy for gamblers to spend up to $99 weekly on lottery tickets in the privacy of their own homes. And who's to say that ALC won't increase that allowable weekly limit in the future?
Media reports have linked 10 suicides in Nova Scotia to VLT gambling. Meanwhile, anti-gambling activists in New Brunswick are incensed that VLT revenues have increased to $16-million while funds for gambling addiction services have sat static at around $757,000. [. . . . ]
From transfer payments to government interference in the market through ACOA grants and other "initiatives", now, through increased incentives for gambling, the East is hostage to the idea of getting something for nothing -- WIN! FREE! I say HOGWASH!
Statistics Canada released a study earlier this month that found almost 75 per cent of Canada's immigrants settled in the three largest centres - Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver - in the 1990s. In 1981, just over half settled in those three cities.
Today, Ontario is home to 60 per cent of Canada's annual take of new immigrants.
The main reason? Immigrants from East and South Asia have historically settled in big cities and they now account for an increasing share of all new arrivals in Canada.
The smaller provinces are trying to fight that trend.
In Manitoba, a program that matches immigrants with employers in need of skilled labour was expanded this year to attract immigrants to smaller centres. About 3,100 immigrants moved to Manitoba last year under the program, more than double the number the previous year.
In New Brunswick, the provincial government has complained that Ottawa hasn't done enough to increase the flow of immigrants to the East Coast. [. . . . ]
Stop right there! Consult with those of us who live here about whether we want to be attractive enough to the criminal gangs which have come into Canada compliments of our government's laxity and trolling for votes from any body who is allowed into Canada. It is not NUMBERS, STUPID! It's QUALITY of immigrants we want -- and that means decent, hard working, non-violent, non-drug dealing, non-grow-op entrepreneurs from the world's criminal classes. Nor do we want those who have made their money in some criminal or drug enterprise buying their way in by paying off embassy staff to by-pass the usual immigration line-ups with $$$ for "entrepreneur" or "investment" entry. We do not need the violent and vicious thugs who look at Western women as too free and deserving of their contempt -- who treat their own women as second class citizens. We do not need the intolerant from failed states to dilute or destroy our democratic traditions. Bring the decent, hard working, skilled from countries striving toward democracy who can fit in here, not representatives of those groups I have mentioned.
It would be even more acceptable to bring immigrants to Canada if it weren't for the inept refugee and immigration gang who allow criminals into Canada whom judges then allow to stay. See this and rage! Have any of the Tamil gangsters whom police rounded up at great time and expense actually been deported?
A prime example of what our courts, IRB, and governments (usually, Liberal) have imported to Canada and then allowed to stay -- Valuable immigrants like these who simply breed here, then are allowed stay on "compassionat" grounds!
TORONTO - A Sri Lankan gangster caught in Toronto with an AK-47 assault rifle and sawed-off shotgun that police believe were meant for a murder has won the right to stay in Canada after a refugee judge ruled the man's family would suffer if he were sent home.
Although the judge said Sanththijesvaran Kathiravelu, 31, was convicted of a serious crime and was a member of AK-Kannan, an ethnic Tamil gang responsible for killings, assaults, extortion and drug trafficking, he ruled he should not be deported for the time being.
Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) member Egya Sangmuah wrote in his decision that since his arrest, Kathiravelu has married and fathered a son in Canada, and takes his family to the mall and cinema. Deporting him would cause undue hardship to the family, he ruled.
Talk about a marriage of convenience!
After setting aside a deportation order, the judge told Kathiravelu to stay away from gangs and guns, and instructed him to return to the refugee board on June 18, 2010, at which time his case will be looked at again. The decision was posted on the IRB's Internet site in August.
The decision is the latest blow for police and immigration officials trying to rid Canada of violent Sri Lankan street gangs responsible for dozens of shootings. Despite scores of arrests, most of the gang members have so far managed to avoid deportation. [. . . . ]
Air Canada uniform theft raises fears -- U.S. intelligence agencies worry airline's clothing could be used for terror plot: Al-Qaeda suspected
[. . . . ] Terrorists could try to use uniforms and vehicles to evade security at airports and other sensitive sites, according to U.S. intelligence reports that noted Islamic terrorism groups have employed similar tactics overseas.
One Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report includes the May 25 theft of an Air Canada uniform on a list of "suspicious incidents" in the United States. The uniform was stolen from a vehicle in Washington, D.C.
[. . . . ] "Attempts to acquire official identification, uniforms or vehicles to facilitate attacks or smuggle personnel or weapons would be consistent with the tactics and techniques of al-Qaeda and other extremist groups," a Homeland Security report says.
[. . . . ] Among other incidents cited by the department:
- The credentials of a Federal Aviation Administration employee were stolen from a car in Oklahoma City in January. The ID card allows the bearer to enter an airline cockpit.
- A U.S. Air Force member stationed at Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma reported several uniforms had been stolen from his home in July, 2003.
- In May, 2004, a Southwest Airlines pilot reported a bag containing his ID and flight manuals had been stolen from his car.
The U.S. Postal Service is particularly concerned "that postal vehicles could be obtained by terrorists to provide an attack delivery system capable of undermining and penetrating a target's security perimeter," a report notes.
Barbarism: "The video of the Nepalese showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently slitting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. The blindfolded man moaned and a shrill wheeze was heard. The masked man then displayed the head to the camera before resting it on the body."
Are the Canadian Islamic Congress, its President El Masry, or any other members of the "peaceful religion" wailing in absolute outrage yet? I'm waiting for CAIR's fury at this fundamentalist Islamicist barbarism -- or is Muslim rage saved to rail against Western "racism", should we mention that Islam is more and more turning out to be utterly barbaric? When are Muslims going to join civilized society and call Islamist fundamentalism what it is, then work to reform or excise it?
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a militant group operating in Iraq.
If true, the slayings would mark the largest number of foreign hostages killed at one time by insurgents in Iraq who have seized more than 100 hostages in recent months in their drive to destabilize the country and force coalition troops and foreign workers to withdraw.
[. . . . ] On Tuesday, unidentified gunmen shot dead Ibrahim Ismael, the head of the education department in the northern city of Kirkuk, said police Col. Sarhat Qadir. Three of Ismael's bodyguards were also wounded and were being treated at a local hospital. [. . . . ]
The Nepalese, in retaliation, destroyed a mosque, and more in Kathmandhu. At least they are clear that the beheading is wrong and deserves rage abd revenge. The West will make noises equivalent to "tut, tut" about Islamic violence and hope they don't sound too "racist". They will not use the term Muslim violence, nor Islamic violence. They have invented a new term, "Islamist" or "Islamicist" for what appears to be intrinsic to the faith -- jihad, intolerance, male dominance and control over their ill treated women and aspirations to spread this violent religion throughout the world to the infidels. Remember the barbarism in Nigeria surrounding Amina Lawal, the woman who gave birth to a child compliments of a man to whom she was not married? What use has the UN been in that situation or with other barbarism? Think of Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Mugabe.
A ONE-TIME loyal supporter of Joe Clark is attacking the former PM for "sleeping with the enemy." Newfoundland Tory MP Loyola Hearn, one of the architects of the new Conservative Party, launched his assault after learning Clark flew to Germany and Afghanistan last February on a personal invitation from a Liberal cabinet minister.
Some of the details of the trip were revealed in an access to information request obtained by Sun Media. Hearn says the timing of the trip with former defence minister David Pratt is highly suspect because it came shortly after Clark split from the new Conservative Party and just weeks before he expressed his support for Paul Martin's Liberals. He sat in Parliament as an independent. [This is the real world of politics!]
[. . . . ] The trip took Clark and Pratt to Munich for a conference on defence policy and Kabul where Canada was in command of the allied forces. [. . . . ]
Joe, as a Red Tory, was always a Liberal, not a conservative. The Liberals and the Red Tories governed Canada for years using the pretense that they differed; they didn't in essentials. To elect the one was to satisfy the other. What frightens people like Joe Clark is that Canadians might have a choice to vote for real change, to vote for conservative Conservatives. That is what led Bernie Lord to instruct those who worked for the provincial Tories in NB to vote Liberal in the June 28, 04 federal election--so I have been told more than once. Joe and Bernie would not want a real conservative Conservative government which might question some of what has been going on for years.
Kawasaki Heavy, Alstom, Bombardier Win China Rail Contracts
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., France's Alstom SA and Bombardier Inc. of Canada won contracts to help upgrade China's railway network, the Chinese government's Xinhua news agency reported.
The contracts are aimed at modernizing a rail network running at full capacity and meeting only 35 percent of cargo demand in one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
China's Ministry of Railways plans to upgrade five rail lines totaling more than 2,000 kilometers of track to increase speeds to 200 kilometers (124 miles) an hour. The project is valued at an estimated 100 billion yen ($914 million), according to a report on Kyodo newswire.
``China's railway construction has lagged far behind economic growth because the government lacked funds and technology to boost capacity and build new lines,'' said Joe Zhang, head of China research at UBS Securities Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. ``The introduction of global train makers may help China speed up the pace to fill the gap.''
Montreal-based Bombardier, the world's third largest manufacturer of commercial airplanes, reported a two-thirds decline in profit in the three months ended July 31, on lower deliveries and higher costs. Its aircraft unit reported a loss for the period.
[. . . . ] The group led by Kobe, Japan-based Kawasaki Heavy includes Chinese train maker Nanche Sifang Locomotive Co., Xinhua said. Alstom's Chinese partner is Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., while Bombardier has teamed up with Bombardier Sifang Power Transportation Ltd. in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, the report said.
Chechen terrorists (male and female) have seized school #1 in Beslan, North Osetia.
They are holding 600 students, parents and teachers.
They demand the release of 27 terrorists who were recently arrested in a raid in Ingushetia. Terrorists have mined the area around the school, and reportedly the female terrorists are wearing suicide belts. Terrorists have announced, via a loudspeaker, that they will kill 20 students for each terrorist killed by the police. They have also made the students stand in order to prevent the police from shooting at the windows.
About the school. School #1 has a capacity of 895 students and 59 teachers. [. . . . ]
TORONTO-AREA drug users face contracting deadly diseases from an increasing amount of dope that's being smuggled into Canada by infected street prostitutes, the Mounties say. "We are very concerned," said RCMP Insp. Sam Landry, head of the force's airport detachment. "The diseases can get into the drugs (and) we are concerned the drug can infect others when it hits the streets."
[. . . . ] Landry said Toronto prostitutes are being recruited by organized crime figures who give them spending money and trips to the Caribbean in all-inclusive hotels. Once there, they are instructed on how to ingest and smuggle dope back to Canada.
Canadian Professional Police Association: "it's time to review prisoner release programs."
SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) - Canada's public safety minister is promising a closer look at the corrections and parole systems after a recent spate of attacks and murders by convicts who were either living at halfway houses or out on day passes.
Anne McLellan, deputy prime minister and the minister of public safety, told members of the Canadian Professional Police Association it's time to review prisoner release programs.
"Clearly, we need to take a serious look at some parts of our parole system, how our corrections system operates and whether or not the commitment to public safety is always there," McLellan told the association during its annual meeting in Saint John on Friday.
McLellan got an earful from police officers furious over several high-profile crimes by parolees.
[. . . . ] "The system has lost the confidence of the police and the public," Glen Dennis of the Edmonton Police Association said as he asked McLellan for a commitment to listen to police concerns on the issue.
Members of the association did not try to hide their anger about the state of corrections and parole services in Canada.
Bruce Miller from the Ontario Police Association, said there are still too many "club-fed" prisons in the country.
[. . . . ] "If Corrections Canada was as proactive for the victims as they are for the convicted offenders, we'd be off to the races," said Brian Atkin of the Ontario Police Association.
Is anyone ever held responsible for his actions any more? Excuses are made: it must have been the parents or society that made them violent. I am tired of the system attempting to rehabilitate unregenerate evil. Some people are evil; accept it and then protect the rest. It is victims that Justice Minister McLellan should be concerned about -- particularly creating more of them.
The common thread in Canada is that victims take second place to criminals. They can even vote in prison. The judicial system is stacked against the honest citizens who work hard and keep their noses clean, while the bandits have a virtual free ride. Professional courtesy?
Major criminals haven't had to worry about the police or being convicted for the past 10 years, which is why Canada is a safe haven for crooks and terorists. The government is supposed to protect Canadians from them. The only thing the government has been concerned about is superficial--the show--the marketing ability of the Musical Ride. How is it possible for crooks to be doing a $30 billion business, have 10,000 hard core crooks on the loose and only a handful end up in the slammer? The government handcuffed the RCMP and freed the crooks. The empty track record speaks volumes. The government may be playing games here but the Americans are deadly serious about the laissez faire justice system that allows terrorists to waltz about the country until they are ready to pounce in the USA. If the government persists in pretending they are "concerned" about security, the U.S. will take a closer look at the border sieve.
Melvin Stanton from Google's cache of Victims of Violence, 19 Mar. 2004
This is just one of the examples at this site.
Melvin Stanton (29/01/2003)
Melvin Stanton's life of violent crime began when he was just a teenager. At 14 he was convicted of manslaughter after he escaped from a juvenile detention centre and beat a young B.C. girl to death with a rock. In 1978, he raped a woman while out on day parole and was sentenced to an additional six years imprisonment. While serving his 25-year concurrent sentence for those crimes, Stanton was granted a two-day pass from Warkworth Institution in Toronto. He was taken to a halfway house in that city where he was supposed to begin his gradual reintegration into society. On January 27, 1988, just 36 hours after his arrival, Stanton left the halfway house. Later that day, the body of 25-year-old Tema Conter was found in her apartment just eight blocks away. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Three days later, police apprehended and charged Stanton with her murder. Stanton [was] eligible to apply for his judicial review on January 29, 2003.
Vancouver — The halfway house in Vernon, B.C., that housed two men who killed again and another now accused of murder will be closed and demolished Feb. 1, it was announced Friday.
"To take on a national bureaucracy like Corrections Canada and get a win, it's pretty big," said Vernon Mayor Sean Harvey. "Hopefully out of this tragedy, something good can come."
The eyes of the nation were on the Okanagan town of 36,000 after convicted murderer Eric Fish was accused of killing retiree Bill Abramenko in an Aug. 4 home invasion after walking away from Howard House on June 22.
That spurred about 300 people to protest outside the facility operated by The John Howard Society on Tuesday, demanding it be closed until the safety of residents from violent offenders is assured.
'Club fed' stirs anger
Halfway house changes coming
Halfwits Defend Halfway House
New concerns about Vernon halfway house
Pressure building to close BC halfway house
'High risk' parolee charged with BC murder
No warning of convicted murderer raises questions
Home invasion victim dies
The John Howard Society of Canada
I have changed this in that I have listed the articles available at this link rather than leaving them in paragraph form.
Woman Lucky To Be Alive After Being Severely Beaten And Left For Dead
[. . . . ] Just after 3 a.m., several young men kicked in the door to a home in the Abbotsfield district.
The homeowner grabbed a baseball bat in self-defence and smacked one of the intruders on the head.
The victim's partners in crime bundled him into a car and raced to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, bouncing off a couple of other vehicles on the way. [. . . . ]
No money for security? For health? Can our politicians be cured?
It's not as if the government didn't have the money to boost the RCMP and CSIS. Think of the gun registry, DND fraud, sponsorship and . . . If they had provided an extra $300 million / yr. for personnel for the past 8 years, we'd have been in much better shape.
The country's finance minsters got in on the pharmacare farce late last week too, arguing the feds actually have a 10-year, $73-billion surplus they could spend on pharmacare. The feds deny it. Splendid -- these guys can't even agree on how much they're overtaxing Canadians.
You don't need a medical degree to make the obvious diagnosis: What's really ailing our health care system these days is a nasty case of politicians.
With two weeks to go before Prime Minister Paul Martin's much-touted meeting with the provincial premiers on health care (you know, the one for which he insisted he needed a new electoral mandate), the only thing these guys seem to agree on is that they disagree.
Oh, and that health care is very, very, very important.
Except when it's not. Alberta's Ralph Klein, for instance, candidly admitted last week that he may not even bother to attend most of the three-day talkfest in Ottawa because "there's no bloody votes" there.
Well, give him points for honesty.
[. . . . ] Forget the TV cameras, boys -- starting Sept. 13, get to work, lock the doors and don't come out for anything until you've fixed this. Wake us when it's over. [. . . . ]
In Japan, the crime rate also rises
Unless the government starts making public safety a priority with proper funding and the police start going after the crooks instead of just writing impressive reports that collect dust, this is the way we're heading.
[. . . . ] Over the past decade, Japan's image as one of the "safest countries in the world" has undergone a disturbing transformation and downgrading. The once-marginal crime rate has jumped an astronomical 150%. Public confidence in the police has plummeted to below 50%, an all-time low. At the same time, a series of high-profile police scandals has rocked public trust and revealed serious flaws in the way the country's law-enforcement system works.
[. . . . ] Many people, such as office worker Kazue Sakamoto, say that the police's failure to tackle petty crime vigorously is an important factor behind the current explosion in criminal activity. Ms Sakamoto said, "The police have closed their eyes to pretty crime and this has encouraged Japanese and foreign criminals to commit more crimes as they know they will get away with it." [. . . . ]
There is an interesting twist to this article, as well, if you link.
THE CONTRARIAN -- Taking on mainstream media, Fox's Hume faces political views head-on
Brit Hume, the Fox News Channel anchor, made a not-so-surprising discovery Monday morning as he thumbed through coverage of the Republican National Convention. All the major newspapers had done stories on the antiwar protests the day before. And he disagreed with most of the pieces.
That evening, broadcasting from the Fox box overlooking the stage at Madison Square Garden, Hume spoke of the contrast between what he saw and what they reported. "I read about soccer moms, and other nice people, middle-class people, people like you and me who had come to express and protest their president, and express their views in a peaceful way," he said.
This was not the scene on C-Span, Hume said. "The F-word was much in abundance in the signs and on the protesters' lips," he said.
It was a perfect Hume moment. Without raising his voice, he had once again reminded viewers why he, and Fox, are not like the others. For Hume, the contrarian's stance has always been second nature.
[. . . . ] Why does Jack [a delegate] watch only Fox? "Because Fox stands for fair and balanced, man," he said, quoting its slogan.
