Danny Williams Canadian Flag Petition, Bud Talkinghorn-Justice? Carolers-Religious-Music Ban
Danny Williams Canadian Flag Petition -- You just have to check this!
[. . . . ] We as patriotic Canadians wish to inform you of our disapproval of your treatment of Canada's flag. As Paul Martin said in a statement issued on December 23rd, 2004:
"The Maple Leaf is the flag of all Canadians including every single Newfoundlander and Labradorian. It should not be treated as a tool for partisan politics."
We agree. [. . . . ]
The Prime Minister clearly has the moral high ground on this issue and we request that you follow the example that he has set for all Canadians in the day-to-day conduct of his own companies.
A few comments along with signatures are hilarious. Don't miss. Search "diss our flag" "destroying that damned country"
Bud Talkinghorn: God rest ye merry gentlemen--for you will be dismayed
The National Post editorial (Dec. 23) expressed sadness that the Senate-Parliamentary Committee's recommendations on divorce reform are not going to be implemented. Instead, Canadians will get male-bashing legislation cobbled together by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler and some faceless bureaucrats. The Justice Minister is much too preoccupied with setting up gay divorce laws to pass his own committee's recommendations. The editorial does not see that hold-up as a bad thing, since "the expected changes would mostly have served to tilt the anti-father bias of Canada's family courts even further in favour of women."
The new bill would have scrapped the provision that would grant fathers "maximum contact" with their kids. Also Cotler's bill would allow women to raise allegations of abuse in divorce proceedings, even if their had never been a previous complaint. That opens the gate wide for vindictive wives to seek sole custody. These amendments are diametrically opposed to the Senate-Parliamentary Committee's recommendations. Why go through the time and expense of these hearings if you are going to completely ignore them. Every day brings new revelations of a justice system that has lost its bearings.
It is bad enough that the advertising campaigns are exclusively anti-male; long-suffering, attractive females having to put up with their dim-witted, (often unattractive) male spouses and boyfriends. Quick, name one ad that features a man outwitting a woman. Come to think of it, take your time, because there aren't any. There is a conspiracy going on here and the worst part is that wimpish men are deeply involved in this social engineering. To make matters worse, the male students of Canada are falling away behind their female counterparts. Despite this fact, the feminists are still railing about the raw deal that females get in our education system. To end this on a humorous note, the Post has another column that says the N.B. Advisory Council on the Status of Women wants parents to prohibit Christmas toys that promote violence or sexual stereotyping. Ho, ho, ho, GI Joe has to go! Give little Bobby an Easy Bake Oven. After all, we don't need warriors, we need chefs--and interior decorators for the women's channels. God save ye merry gentlemen.
WASHINGTON -- Susan Rosenbluth and fellow Orthodox Jews yesterday came to Maplewood, N.J., to join a crowd of more than 100 carolers in singing Christmas and Hanukkah songs in front of Columbia High School.
Holiday hymns were sung in response to school policies that Steve Lonegan -- the Republican mayor of nearby Bogota, N.J., who organized the event -- called "intolerance" toward traditional religious beliefs.
The carolers showed up outside the school, which held its annual holiday music program last night, to protest a South Orange/Maplewood School District ban on religious songs at schools in this community across the Hudson River from New York.
"The greatest works of art in Western civilization are inspired by religious -- predominantly Christian -- convictions," said Mrs. Rosenbluth, editor of Jewish Voice and Opinion, an Englewood-based monthly.
"We are religious Jews who believe Western civilization is the heritage of all of our children in the United States," Mrs. Rosenbluth said, explaining why she and other Orthodox Jews joined the protest.
"This started out as a small event I decided last week to do," said Mr. Lonegan, who is Catholic. "I expected a handful of people and attacks against me by newspaper editors. Instead, there's this groundswell of support and the newspapers haven't attacked me -- yet." [. . . . ]
Bud Talkinghorn-WalMarting of the World, Frank McKenna, The Carlyle Group
Bud Talkinghorn: The Wal-Marting of the world
Old Sam sure did it up proud. His little Bentonville, Ark. business took off and now has a gargantuan appetite for swallowing up competitors. Years ago, I remember passing through this Alabama town. Most of the downtown stores were boarded up, but on the outskirts of town the enormous Wal-Mart parking lot was filled. I went in to look for something and found that practically every item once sold in town was on sale there. When the 'greeter' told me "Thanks for shopping at Wal-Mart", I thought, "You probably had a thriving business downtown and now you work for your enemy at minimum wage. I'll bet you can't stop thinking, I hope this big box burns to the ground."
The October issue of Rolling Stone profiled Wal-Mart's role in the American music business. Although music comprises only 2% of their profit, WalMart sells 20% of all music sold in the U.S. Hence, they have the music industry over a barrel. WalMart demands that every CD they sell must be priced under $10. If the company complains, then Wal-Mart threatens to delist their artists. Partially crippled by the downloading craze, the industry faces potential ruin from this forced pricing. When you consider that between Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy 50% of the market for music is controlled by them, you can see the music industry contracting. This does not bode well for the music fan. It means that only the big sellers--mostly dreck--will be available. My local music store keeps the JJ Cale slot, but with its identifier a mere tombstone, as there is never anything there except JJ's best. The blues/jazz section will be like trying to find King Solomon's Mine. [Does WalMart carry classical music? NJC]
However, the music angle is not the worst news concerning Wal-Mart. China provides the bulk of Wal-Mart's products, and now that the WTO rules are changing this year, they will buy even more from China. How much is more? Consider this astronomical figure; Wal-Mart now is buying half a billion dollars's worth of Chinese goods a day. I recently bought a Phillips set of earphones, thinking you can't really beat Dutch technology for this price. Closer reading of the box at home revealed that they were made in China. Perhaps we are approaching the day when half the people will work for Wal-Mart or the fast food joints like McDonalds--all for less than the minimum wage of today, because these conglomerates will demand it, and our governments will go along because of the high unemployment.
Bud, I have scored a small personal victory; I have not entered a mall this season. Anything from me is homemade -- often from materials such as fabric that I have around home or things I picked, preserved, froze -- that kind of thing. The quality? The recipients may judge that; they are usually polite enough to accept.
By the way, as for what you wrote, as in Irving-controlled New Brunswick, the governments will comply when big business puts its foot down. I am waiting for Canadian businesses to advertise prominently that they are:
Many of us want to buy Canadian to support people we know and recognize, our neighbours, friends, communities. It is time!
Another thing, Christmas has brought thoughts of a tragedy for those who worked at Ste. Anne-Nackawic Pulp and Paper Mill which closed and left them unemployed.
* No final salaries for work done,
* No payment for contractors,
* No pensions,
* Just cold, dishonourable businessmen using them to close down the plant, under the misapprehension that they would be starting it up after that normal yearly shut down.
* Then, the workers were told to go home; their jobs were done.
How could any owner or manager have done this? How could they be so dishonourable? They knew long ago that this was coming.
How is it possible the pensionable employees at Ste. Anne-Nackawic Pulp and Paper Mill would be left completely bereft? I wish someone would explain to me why the people who worked in the mill would be so low on the totem pole that they would be the worst losers of all.
Every time I think of these people and then I think of the Christmas shopping that has been done--people buying unwanted or unnecessary junk for other people who buy equally unwanted and unnecessary drek to reciprocate--I wonder if it would not be kinder and more in the spirit of the season to have sent the money to older workers, particularly. Don't we have a duty within our own environs to help our own needy and those who have been unfairly hit with hardship in business closures? Isn't there a fund for accident victims? I don't know the exact details but I believe it covers the victims of accidents involving uninsured drivers who drive anyway, but I could be wrong. Why not a fund supported by our charity for unemployed workers, particularly older ones who are unlikely to ever be employed again?
Just musing -- but these workers and their plight bother me. They are not the only victims of the immorality / amorality of business, simply ones that come to mind.
Hints that ex-NB Premier Frank McKenna Will be Canada's Next Ambassador to Washington -- He travels in powerful circles; check below.
The Star (registration required, sorry) is reporting that Frank McKenna is heading up the short-list to be named Canada's next ambassador to the U.S.
Now, there are things about Frank McKenna that will probably raise some people's hackles, like his links to the Carlyle Group. However, if we've learned anything about the Bush Administration, it's that Bush figures you're either with them or against them, and in many cases actual actions count for less than making the noises Bush wants to hear. In that respect, McKenna is perfect. [. . . . ]
Carlyle Canada -- McKenna listed, along with . . . . . . . .
James A. Baker, III
Frank C. Carlucci
Laurent Beaudoin Peter J.G. Bentley
Andre Bisson
Paul G. Desmarais
Allan E. Gotlieb
E. Peter Lougheed
Frank McKenna David P. O'Brien
Hartley T. Richardson
William Sinclair
Lynton R. Wilson
Check the lists for Carlyle Europe and Carlyle Energy, as well.
The Carlyle Group was "Established in 1987, The Carlyle Group is a private global investment firm . . . . "
The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with more than $18.9 billion under management. With 26 funds across four investment disciplines (management-led buyouts, real estate, leveraged finance, and venture capital), Carlyle combines global vision with local insight, relying on a top-flight team of nearly 300 investment professionals operating out of offices in 14 countries to uncover superior opportunities in North America, Europe, and Asia.
While open to opportunities wherever they can be found, Carlyle focuses on sectors in which it has demonstrated expertise: aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, and telecommunications & media.
With offices in Bangalore, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, [. . . . ]
The Carlyle Group Establishes Growth Capital Investment Team in Japan -- New and Unique Effort Will Make Growth Capital Investments in Promising Companies and Conduct Buyouts of Small Companies [. . . . ]
Tokyo, Japan - Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group . . . . This new initiative will become an integral part of Carlyle’s overall Asia grow capital platform, the Carlyle Asia Venture Group headed by Wayne Tsou. Haruyasu Asakura, currently a Managing Director on the Carlyle Japan buyout team, will join the Carlyle Asia Venture Group to lead the Japan Growth Capital team. He will assemble a team of several new investment professionals in early 2005.
[. . . . ] “. . . . given the increasing integration of the major Asian economies of Japan, China, Korea and India, there are tremendous synergies to be derived from a seamless regional operation. [. . . . ]
The Carlyle Growth Capital team will pursue investments in business services, information technology, communication, semiconductors, media & content and [. . . . ]
Carlyle/Riverstone portfolio company Legend Natural Gas explores and produces natural gas and crude oil in North America.
Legend Natural Gas was formed in 2001 to acquire and develop North American natural gas and crude oil resources, combining promising oil and gas properties under a strong management team. Legend's management will draw on $100 million of funding commitments to build economies of scale through acquisitions in particular geographic and geological areas. [. . . . ]
Shanghai, China - . . . Huaya Microelectronics Limited (HuayaMicro), China’s leading fabless [sic] semiconductor design company focused on video solutions. Its Integrated Circuits (ICs) are used in a range of products, including large screen high definition TVs (HDTVs), small portable displays, and set-top-boxes. The funding will be used to grow the R&D team, accelerate product development and expand into new markets.
Founded in 2001 and based in Shanghai, HuayaMicro has grown to more than 100 employees in four offices in China (Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen and Mianyang) and an office in San Jose, California. With more than 10 patents in China and the United States, HuayaMicro has built a solid foundation to become a global leader in advanced digital visual, audio and other multimedia solutions. Its customers include Changhong, Skyworth, Gadmei, Proview, SmartASIC and other major manufacturers.
[. . . . ] “HuayaMicro has successfully demonstrated their capability by developing the high-end video display controller IC with their own IP. . . . we have strong confidence that HuayaMicro will become a global player,”. . . .
[. . . . ] HuayaMicro is well-positioned to become a leader in video IC design for the China and global markets.”
Undoubtedly, Canadians will see HuayaMicro products flooding the market here, soon.
McKenna from NB travels in rarified global circles these days, it seems. I still think he is being positioned to run for Prime Minister for the Liberals, now that he has the Desmarais imprimatur, global contacts, and will have US contacts if he goes to Washington.
He's the guy who had enough local clout to garner a doctorate for himself from St. Thomas University and to get one for his wife, what for, I am not sure, but they must have done something to warrant such honours. I believe one of their sons became co-valedictorian at his Fredericton High School in the same time period; have you heard of many co-valedictorians? In NB, it pays to be Liberal and to cultivate the right contacts. Frank McKenna is the premier who travelled around Canada and the US, claiming NB was "open for business". Several call centers came--undoubtedly with enticing tax breaks--and several have closed since. I still would like to know what McKenna ever did of long-term import for NB. Perhaps being Liberal and cultivating the right people is sufficient.
When it comes to global influence, Canada’s Montreal-based Power Corporation is an octopus with tentacles everywhere.
Both Prime Minister Paul Martin and his mentor Maurice Strong, senior advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, worked for Power Corp.
Martin’s immediate predecessor is former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, whose daughter, France is married to Andre Desmarais, son of Power Corp’s founding father, Paul Desmarais. [. . . . ]
You will be surprised, I expect, if you read the whole article.
[. . . . ] For the first time in history, Muslims are building large and growing minorities across the secular Western world - nowhere more visibly than in Western Europe, where their numbers have more than doubled in the past two decades. The impact is unfolding from Amsterdam to Paris to Madrid, as Muslims struggle - with words, votes and sometimes violence - to stake out their place in adopted societies.
Disproportionately young, poor and unemployed, they seek greater recognition and an Islam that fits their lives. Just as Egypt, Pakistan and Iran are witnessing the debate over the shape of Islam today, Europe is emerging as the battleground of tomorrow.
"The French are scared," said Tair Abdelkader, 38, a regular at the tented mosque whose light blue eyes and ebony beard are the legacy of a French mother and Algerian father. "In 10 years, the Muslim community will be stronger and stronger, and French political culture must accept that."
By midcentury, at least one in five Europeans will be Muslim. That change is unlike other waves of immigration because it poses a more essential challenge: defining a modern Judeo-Christian-Islamic civilization. The West must decide how its laws and values will shape and be shaped by Islam.
For Europe, as well as the United States, the question is not which civilization, Western or Islamic, will prevail, but which of Islam's many strands will dominate. Will it be compatible with Western values or will it reject them?
Center stage in that debate is France, home to the largest Islamic community on the continent, an estimated 5 million Muslims. Here the process of defining Euro-Islam is unfolding around questions as concrete as the right to wear head scarves and as abstract as the meaning of citizenship, secularism and extremism. In some cases, conservative Muslims have refused to visit co-ed swimming pools, study Darwinism or allow women to be examined by male doctors.
[. . . . ] Year by year, European Islam pulls further away from the cultural traditions of Morocco or Algeria, refashioned all the while by the pressures of life in Europe. For some, the solution is a more liberalized Islam that incorporates Western concepts of individual rights and tolerance. But for others, the answer lies in a stricter interpretation of the core elements of the faith.
"It is more fundamentalist in its essence because what you subsist on is personal practice_reading of the Koran, Shariah," Vaisse said. "It can take very humanist forms, but in some cases, it can also lead to political radicalization and terrorism."
[. . . . ] A French intelligence official who monitors fundamentalist groups said he believes the veil controversy and efforts to train imams have pushed French Muslims to an awkward reckoning point: They must decide whether to integrate with Europe or fight back in earnest against official efforts to shape their community.
"They are at a crossroads," he said. "They can either go left or right." [. . . . ]
Lengthy and informative.
Saudi daily says U.S. harvests Iraqis' organs -- Government newspaper cites 'secret' European military reports
Citing only alleged European "secret reports," an article in a Saudi government daily accused the U.S. Army of harvesting the organs of Iraqis and selling them.
The story in Al-Watan also was published in the Iranian daily Jomhouri-ye Islami and the Syrian daily Teshreen, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.[. . . . ]
Canada's CRTC decided it would allow Al Jazeera into Canada if any cable company wants to bring it. Will Al-Watan be encouraged to publish for those who wish to read it here? Al-Watan and Al Jazeera would make such edifying additions to the drek we already get, wouldn't they? Bah!
If Iranians and Syrians are exposed to this utter drivel--the lies--in their dailies, what do you imagine they think of all of us--Canadians included--in the West? I began to get an idea when I found out that being schooled at home, for some, is preferable to exposing their children to the negative influence of ours in school, though of course, coming here for an education and economic reasons was fine. Also, I remember that, with 9-11, even when there was what--to the rest of us--was incontrovertible proof, there were strong denials by Muslims that this barbarity, this terrorism, was related to Islam, Islamists or had anything to do with the Islamic world. To them, the Twin Towers had to have been the work of ****, of course. Think of multicultural Canada and the news our newcomers have been exposed to in their home countries. What attitudes come with them? What else does it make you think?
ACLU, CAIR target Christian group -- Demand probe on behalf of Muslim school offended by 'hostile' questions
The ACLU and an Islamic civil-rights group are calling for investigation of the head of a private-school association who wrote a letter to a Muslim school applying for membership, asking why it would want to join a group that doesn't fit its beliefs.
In a two-page letter, Edd Burleson, director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or TAPPS, asked the Houston school, Dar-Ul-Arqam, 10 questions, including its attitude toward "the spread of Islam in America" and the goals of the school "in this regard."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has demanded an apology and reprimands, calling the letter an "alarmingly intolerant and hostile attitude toward Islam and Muslims," the Houston Chronicle reports. [. . . . ]
The letter reflects "the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment" since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he claimed.
Without reason. . . . .
Stolen passports missed at U.S. borders -- The devil is in the details.
Foreign nationals applying for admission to the United States using stolen passports have "little reason to fear being caught" and usually are admitted, even when their fraudulent documents have been posted on the government's computerized "lookout" lists, a report said.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General said in a 40-page report that of the 176 foreign nationals who its investigators identified as having used a stolen passport in an attempt to enter the United States from 1998 to 2003, 136 were admitted.
[. . . . ] Mr. Skinner's report made several recommendations: [. . . . ]
A former Muslim cleric was yesterday jailed for 10 years for raping and sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in a mosque where he was teaching.
Manzoor Hussain, 42, of Bristol, was convicted of one offence of rape and four of indecent assault. The offences took place at a mosque in the city between July 1996 and March the following year.
At the time of the offences, Hussain was the imam at the mosque in Lower Cheltenham Place. [. . . . ]
Bell aims to set the tone for IP networks -- 'This company will simply not be outflanked'
Bell's enthusiastic move to IP is a necessity because the Internet is revolutionalizing the telecom industry as it lets service providers easily reach customers over a high-speed network.
While carriers such as Bell and Telus Corp. control the "pipe", anyone can piggyback on it to offer services. Look at what Vonage Holdings Corp. is doing in the telephony space.
[. . . . ] One of the larger obstacles facing carriers in the short term is they are not the most flexible or quick-acting entities. While they can talk the talk about new IP services, it is smaller companies such as Vonage and Salesforce.com that are actually selling them. [. . . . ]
Policing-Sensitivity-Lesbian-Homosexual-Community, Paper Trail and Ecstasy
Two different rules of law -- Toronto "is a city that subscribes to the group hug theory of fighting crime" -- a "must read" article
Two different rules of law -- a "must read" article Arthur Weinreb, Dec. 22, 04. Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work as appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, the Drudge Report, Foxnews.com and The Rant. He can be reached at cfp@canadafreepress.com
[. . . . .] In 2002, a Provincial Court Judge found that the women’s right to privacy had been contravened and said that the conduct of the officers amounted to a strip search and constituted violations under the Charter of Rights.
[. . . . .] The settlement of the civil suit effectively means that there is now one law for gays and one for heterosexuals. So much for the notion of equality.
Paper trail led to drugs -- Sales of hot-tub chemicals traced to ecstasy labs -- "safrole and piperonal"
TORONTO -- York Regional Police used some new-fangled detective work to make a "shocking" Ecstasy bust -- the largest in Canadian history. By tracing the sale of chemicals commonly used in hot tubs, deodorants and air fresheners -- which also happen to be key ingredients for illicit drugs -- police uncovered a complex, organized Ecstasy ring and with it 1,000 kilos of liquid and powder MDMA (Ecstasy).
The seized powdered drug was 96% pure and packed in vacuum-sealed bags, likely ready for shipment to the U.S. It's worth $100 million but has a potential street value of half a billion dollars and is more than the total amount seized in all of the U.S. in 2003, police said.
[. . . . ] Ecstasy is a semi-synthetic compound that can be made relatively easily by anyone with more than two years of college chemistry. The precursor chemicals for MDMA are tightly controlled in the U.S. But, in Canada there are no restrictions on buying them. [. . . . ]
