There might always be an England, but what of Qanada?

The attack by terrorists on the London transit system brought to the Canadian forefront questions concerning our own safety. Generally the questions all revolved around how safe is our transit system from attack, how well prepared are we for a terror strike, or is it even realistic to expect a terrorist attack on Canadian soil?

According to The Toronto Star, Toronto Transit officials were quick to reassure the public that they are viligant and have plans in place to deal with an alleged attack on our transit system. In point of fact, this fall the TTC will be conducting training exercises based on a London style attack on our transit system in order to test how well prepared our first responsers will response. Four years after September 11th and all I can think is how pre-emptive of them!

The Toronto Star writes that Monte Kwinter, Ontario Minister of Community Safety, "declares that Ontarians should be confident that emergency personnel are prepared for the worst. “I am satisfied that the people of Ontario are safe and they really have nothing that they should worry about." How utterly Liberal of Minster Kwinter considering just this week that an Associated Press reporter published an article on July 4th suggesting that Canadian governmental officials believe there are 50 known terrorist organizations operating in Canada. Of course, these are the only known groups – no need to worry about what you don’t know is the Liberal mantra.

In the event of a terrorist strike on Canadian soil, I am glad that officials feel that they are well prepared for the havoc and chaos that strikes after an attack but it is at best a cold comfort. Mr. Dithers, speaking from Scotland issued a statement that Canadians are not in any known immediate danger at this time and your government remains vigiliant according to this Globe and Mail article.

Though I would probably feel more secure if our armed forces, in penny-wise-pound-foolish initiative (brought on by successive Liberal government’s budget emasculation of our armed forces) did not have to conduct urban live-training exercises with rented commercial paint ball weapons. No doubt Liberals have put all their faith in the long gun registry as an effective deterrent against terrorist strikes in Canada. How they perceive this will benefit any Canadian armed forces deployment inside or outside of Canada is beyond my ken but that is for another post.

But these are all the wrong questions and answers to give, but it does show that our leadership in this country does not have the slightest grasp of who the enemy actually is; therefore, no assurances of a low risk assessment can be realistically or plausibly be given.

As I watched the second plane crash into the tower at the World Trade Centre on CNN on the morning of September 11th all off-the-cuffs jokes about pilot error were wiped from my mouth and mind when I realized that we were all Israeli’s from this day forth. Reject that idea at your peril. There are no other people who have been at the forefront of the fight against Islamic terrorism longer than the Israeli’s. Only the naïve, ignorant and terminally deluded cling to the belief that a land dispute lies at the heart of the conflict between the Israeli’s and Arab-Palestinians rather than the first clash of western values with radicalized Islamic dogma. If this conflict were merely a land dispute, it would have been settled a very long time ago.

Al Qaeda was born out of a conflict with Western values and a radicalized Islamic agenda. This radicalized Islamist agenda is what lies at the heart of this group and is the sole reason of existence for all operating Islamic terrorist groups. Be they; Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, the PLO or the loose network of co-jihadists who today call themselves the Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe. It is the height of naivety to assume that because the West no longer resolves disputes of religious dogma with arms or initiates wars on the basis of religious belief that all other non-Judeo-Christian religious groups have had this same moment of epiphany. Being culturally "nice" is not an excuse for intellectually disarming ourselves nor is the fact that we are not British or American shield us from the ire or sword of the jihadists.

Out of the frying pan and into the car?

Finally someone has come up with a use for the old oil in my deep fryer reports YnetOnline:

Have a snack and do the environment a favor. That's the idea behind Israeli scientist Oren Bigger's device that recycles oil used to make falafel. The result - "biodiesel" - a greener alternative to fossil fuels like petrol and diesel. Oren Bigger says the oil used to make falafel is the cheapest and most convenient way to produce biodiesel in Israel.

Bigger produces his in a workshop at his home in Ramat Raziel, a farming and rural community on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He says more Israelis should follow suit. Biodiesel can be made from a variety of oils and fats and has similar combustion properties to petroleum diesel. It's nothing new, but Bigger says using falafel oil is easy and cost-effective.

I have no idea how feasible this is but it is certainly an idea worth exploring; no doubt our current Ontario Liberal uber-lords of health will only give it sanction if it uses cooking oils that are transfat free.

One Love and All of That

The Last Amazon has been emailing and calling me from Nana’s telling me how appalled she is because I have been slagging off blogging. Apparently, I am failing to keep up my end of the dialogue. For those of you who don’t know, I originally started to blog as a form of dialogue between my daughter and myself. The Last Amazon reads daily and then she emails her views. She has yet to comment in the comment section and prefers to list my shortcomings in private communication for which I am very grateful as she has an incredible intellect. I cannot envision a more humbling or humiliating experience than to publicly debate a newer improved version of oneself.

She seems to think that I should have a great deal of time now that I am down to only one child. The truth is; I am exhausted. I spent the weekend with a house full of boys between the ages of 12-13. I think Tipper is on to something here but her formula needs to factor in the ages of the boys as well. I had thought with Montana boxing during the weekday afternoons that I would have some relief from the boy factor but I failed to take into account that he finishes at 3:30pm which still gives him plenty of time to have his friends over.

I have never put a limit on the children having their friends over and my only rule has been that the house has to be spotless which means that they have to get to work. In the past this has usually bought me some allegedly private time during the week but the “man” has been keeping the house spotless, and now that his sister is not in the house, he has increased his circle of associates that he brings to the home. Apparently, he has issues dealing with the fact that some of his friends cannot control themselves from gawking at this “older” sister, The Last Amazon. He finds it too perverse to deal with. The only relief I have had was last night when Montana was at a birthday party at his friend’s house. I used that time to catch up on some much needed sleep.

In a conversation with the Last Amazon last night she wanted an update on the Check Point Charlie Monument and asked if the Berlin government actually went through with the bulldozing of the monument on the 4th of July. The answer can be found here. As the Last Amazon commented, strike Berlin off the list of cities to visit.

The Last Amazon asked if I had any ideas about what I wanted to blog about and I started to discuss with her a blog post that I first read here that was sparked by a blog post here. Now the Last Amazon is the product of an alleged “inter-racial” marriage. I have always had a problem with the term “inter-racial”, bi-racial, half-breed etc. It really sounds like my children were the result of sex with aliens or another species. I can’t get my head around the simple fact that most people cannot comprehend that there is only one species of homo sapiens. All the alleged “races” are just variations of the same theme. Culture and religion are valid divisions between people and I think one can make a valid case against wildly divergent cultures or religious convictions putting up barriers to potential martial happiness and therefore potentially providing a toxic environment for the raising of children.

But who knows, maybe I have spent too much time in Jamaica where every one is mixed unless you just got off the plane and you cannot count on the “white” looking people not having “black” looking parents. Hey, even Bob Marley’s father was white and I do not see how he had issues that resulted from being the product of an inter-racial union nor have I noticed that he was rejected by the “black” community because his father was white.

I decided to play devil’s advocate with her and tried to explain that he grew up dirt poor and was markedly different for his peers and his experiences of being different marked him in way that that was psychologically harmful therefore he reasoned that being a different colour from ones’ parents would be even more toxic to children who were the result of "inter-racial" marriages.

Anyway, The Last Amazon’s first off the cuff comment really put the whole issue to bed for me when she asked, “Is he talking about marrying your sister and having children with her? Because that’s just wrong. I don’t care what you say. It’s just wrong.” Her final comments were to remark on the ability of humans to live a long time and still be utterly clueless about life. Life is by nature unfair and if you seek fairness from the hand that life deals you, you will end your days old, bitter and probably alone -- and asked didn’t his parents teach him that life is never fair?

Red Ensign Standard - Volume 25

Raging Kraut has hoisted the 25th Edition of the Red Ensign Standard.

Since Ray survived our only Red Ensign Bloggers hazing ritual twice, I now feel a strange compulsion to buck up, knuckle down, and step up to the plate and hoist another one. Hopefully, this will soon pass but until it does I will be busy reading what my fellow Red Ensign Bloggers are saying.

Gee, that was a surprise!

Hamas Rejects Palestinian Authority Chairman's offer of forming a "national unity" government reports the Jerusalem Post:

Hamas on Monday rejected an invitation by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to join his government, a Hamas official said. Abbas had invited the group to begin negotiations about participation in the government. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei had said Sunday that talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad on setting up a "national unity" government would begin this week.

(...)
"Tonight the Hamas leadership made a decision following deep consultations within the movement institutions, and the decision was not to participate in the proposed government," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told The Associated Press.

Who would have thought they would do that?

Happy Independence Day and God Bless America.

For my Canadian readers, happy Tax Freedom Day – it was actually on the 26th of June and I was paid on June 30th but somehow I failed to notice the difference. How about you? What I really would like to have is a stop passing the envelope to the Liberals day but I guess its just not going to happen anytime soon.


(Tipped off by Let it Bleed)

Is the sun about to set on Abbas?

The Toronto Star carries an Associated Press article as the big mid-east story of the day which suggests that Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas has allegedly invited Hamas to make up part of his cabinet but considering that Abbas has been attempting to entice terrorists into his security forces; why not in his cabinet? My take on the situation was that cabinet posts were long on the table for Hamas once they showed a strong election returns in Gaza but Hamas officials are somewhat reluctant to get down and cozy with the PA. Can’t say I blame them, as their appeal to the Palestinian public has been based on the fact that they are not tainted with the innate corruption that runs rampant like mother’s milk in the Palestinian Authority.

Though I think the Toronto Star Mid-East bureau has dropped the ball in not reporting on two days of continuation action on the Israeli-Lebanese border and for not reporting this mid-east story of the day which I found at the Jerusalem Post:

Veteran PLO leader Farouk Kaddoumi, a staunch opponent of the Oslo Accords, has decided to move his headquarters from Tunis to the Gaza Strip after Israel evacuates the area, senior Palestinian Authority officials said on Thursday. The officials said Kaddoumi's decision came following a meeting he held in the Jordanian capital of Amman with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The two are in Amman to attend the meeting of the Fatah central committee.

In addition to Abbas and Kaddoumi, 14 other Fatah officials are participating in the three-day discussions, which began on Thursday. Abbas and Kaddoumi met on Wednesday night and agreed that Kaddoumi would move to the Gaza Strip shortly after Israel completes its withdrawal from the area, said a PA official in Ramallah. Kaddoumi is one of the few PLO leaders who refused to move to the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the signing of the Oslo Accords, which he has condemned as a sell-out to Israel.

Kaddoumi, who has openly challenged Abbas's leadership since the death of Yasser Arafat, is expected to be appointed as deputy chairman of the PA and PLO during the Fatah central committee meeting. Abbas has been under heavy pressure from many Fatah leaders to name Kaddoumi as number two in the Palestinian leadership – a move that is likely to increase his chances of succeeding Abbas in the future.

Remember the name of Farouk Kaddoumi as he will be playing a pivotal role in the future – providing the Israelis’ allow his return. Kaddoumi does not just represent a threat to Abbas’ leadership in the PLO but to his life as well. If the PLO membership is forced to a choose between Abbas and Kaddoumi there is no way that Abbas can garner enough support to stand against Kaddoumi who is a leader more in the mould of Arafat than Abbas.

Furthermore, the uncompromising position he took in not returning with Arafat under the Oslo Accord in the early 90’s has left him relatively untouched by charges of corruption and he reaped a considerable amount of respect and creditability within not only the Palestinian Authority but with Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well. In other words, he has the street creds that Abbas lacks. If I were Abbas, I would say that there is no time like the present and I would start planning my escape route out of the Occupied Territories into a relatively safe exile somewhere far away.

Remembering Dominion Day or a time when “Hell yes, Of Course, You Can Count on Us” was a Canadian Mantra

July the 1st is a national holiday known as Canada Day. It was not always so. From 1867 until October 26, 1982 it was known as Dominion Day and was a day to celebrate our long national heritage. On October 27, 1982 the Liberal government under the leadership of Pierre Elliot Trudeau (may he be soon united in the afterlife and consigned to spend all of eternity with his long-time pal Fidel Castro) decided the best way to celebrate Canada’s heritage and history was to change it. Hence, the new name to reflect a year zero in Canadian history.

I stopped celebrating Dominion Day when it became Canada Day. I have yet to have it explained rationally why the Dominion of Canada needed to repatriate the constitution. I failed to see what was wrong with the old constitution and I have yet to see or experience any benefit as a Canadian citizen I have from reaped from patriating the constitution in the first place. I came early to the conclusion in my young and uber-liberal mind that it was all a Liberal smoke and mirrors scam to deflect criticism on Liberal mismanagement of the economy and the country. I may not be considered an uber-liberal anymore but nothing I have learned since has changed my first initial impression.

Canada’s last great act as nation occurred two years before the changing of the name and the repatriating of the constitution. It did not occur under Pierre Trudeau or the Liberal Party’s watch, nor do I think it would have been possible or conceivable for any Liberal government in the last 40 years to have the necessary courage or fortitude needed to accomplish it.

Shortly after the fall of the Shah of Iran in early 1979 student followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iran’s first Mad Mullah) stormed and seized the American Embassy and took hostage all Americans found within the building. Six Americans managed to escaped and sought sanctuary at the Canadian Embassy. John Sheardown, the top immigration official at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran was the initial contact for the Americans. When he was asked if he would provide assistance his response is reported to have been, “Hell yes. Of course, you can count on us.” With the full backing of the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, Joe Clark, Ken Taylor, the Canadian Ambassador and his wife housed two of the Americans while John Sheardown and his wife opened their home to the other four and hide them for nearly a year until they could be safely smuggled out of Iran at great risk to themselves, their families and Canadian Embassy personnel.

In fact checking my sources to write this blog I found a Government of Canada website developed and designed as a research guide for teachers entitled The Trudeau Years 1968-1984. There is a suggested lesson plan that focuses almost exclusively on Trudeau’s alleged accomplishments.

Under the segment designed as suggested essay topics my personal favourite was question 17:

17. What did Canada do for the Americans after the fall of the Shah of Iran? (The Canadian embassy in Tehran sheltered five American diplomats who had escaped the Iranian militants under the Ayatollah Khomeini, and with the full backing of the Canadian government helped smuggle them out of the country using false Canadian passports.)

It certainly leaves one with the impression that the sheltering and smuggling out of Iran six Americans (not 5 as published on the Canadian Government’s website) during the Mullah revolution was an accomplishment of the Trudeau years when nothing could be further to the truth.

Iranian Lawmaker thinks Condi Rice’s boots are made for walking

Hell has no fury like a scorned woman US Secretary of State according this Iranian lawmaker quoted in Iranmania:

Perplexed by the vitriol of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's attacks on Iran, one lawmaker believes he has uncovered the secret of her enmity -- that she was spurned by an Iranian boyfriend at college, according to ISNA.

"The reason that the US secretary of state attacks Iran is because she had her heart broken by a young man from Qazvin while they were students," a confident Shokrollah Attarzadeh was quoted by the ISNA agency as saying. Somewhat mysteriously, he added: "This is the result of an investigation by a woman MP, who cannot be named."

Qazvin is an unremarkable city 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Tehran, hitherto not known for playing a major role Iran-US relations, which have been frozen for a quarter of a century. Attarzadeh did not offer any other details on the alleged affair or, for that matter, any interesting new proposal on how ties between the two arch-enemies could be warmed up.

I just hope it is not too late for the Marines to organize an airlift to drop teams of psychiatrists into the region.

(tipped off by Israellycool)

What does a terrorist group do when Arafat is not around to agitate for them anymore?

Ha’aretz is reporting that Hezbollah terrorists attempted to infiltrate the Mount Dov region of Israel today:

At around 4:45 P.M., a force from the IDF's elite Magellan unit spotted a group of five Hezbollah fighters crossing the border into the Har Dov region, in an area where there is no perimeter fence. The IDF soldiers opened fire on the Hezbollah cell and an exchange ensued, resulting in the light wounding of a Magellan officer. One of the Hezbollah fighters was killed in the exchange, while others may have been wounded.

After realizing that the cell had been spotted, other Hezbollah fighters began firing mortars at IDF positions in the area in an effort to provide cover for their retreating comrades. The mortar barrage left one Golani soldier at the Dalia outpost dead. Two more Golani soldiers sustained light injuries in the mortar attack.

The IDF responded immediately with artillery fire aimed at Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, thus allowing the casualties from the mortar attack to be evacuated to the foot of Har Dov and from there by helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Safed. At the same time, IAF fighter jets and helicopters attacked five Hezbollah positions in Lebabon. There were no reports from Lebanon of casualties. The exchanges of fire caused panic in Kiryat Shmona, and the city opened a number of its bomb shelters.

The head of the IDF's Northern Command, Major General Benny Ganz, said last night, "It is still too early to assess how far things will go with this incident."The IDF has lodged a complaint about the Hezbollah action with the commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, for its part, said that the organization was responding to an Israeli violation of the border arrangements. "One of our forces spotted Israeli soldiers crossing the blue line [the international border] and responded," said Sheikh Nabil Qauq, a Hezbollah leader in South Lebanon.

So who do you believe? My money is on the Israeli’s holding the higher ground and not for all the obvious reasons but because there is simply no strategic purpose to be served for attempting to infiltrate Lebanon and risk an escalation of violence while the IDF prepares to expel Jews from Gaza. That’s the cutting your nose to spite your face military thinking that has never characterized the IDF command ethos. But it would be in Hezbollah’s interest to escalate the violence and provoke a military response from Israel in order to prove the relevancy of Hezbollah’s continued armed existence in Lebanon especially if the rumours are true that anti-Syrian opposition leaders Hariri and General Michel Aoun have formed a coalition which effectively allows them to oust control from the pro-Syrian forces of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s party.

The Innate Folly of Leaving Genocide up to the Jews

I concur with Baron Bodissey of Gates of Vienna – this ranks as the best Quote of the Day taken from an article by Julia Gorin in Jewish World Review:

The hope is that if Israeli "genocide" of Palestinians (or "terrorist attacks and slaughter" as Ms. Wold terms it) is cited often enough, it will bring international peacekeepers in to tie Israel's hands and be at the mercy of the world. Why else would everyone get so angry when two or three Palestinian civilians are killed in the course of military responses to massacres? It's the agonizingly slow pace of this genocide! The displaced Arabs started out with 400,000; they screamed genocide and became four million. This is what happens when you leave genocide up to Jews.

Here’s the link for the whole article.

It’s official; everything in Canada will now be rendered unto Caesar

So the Liberals have passed their same sex marriage bill and once again have proved that that if there is a right way or a wrong way to do something they will choose to go ass over tea kettle every single time. I have maintained all along that the government should have legislated civil unions for all and leave marriage for the religious among us. That is the only way to have safeguarded the rights of the religious and still have allowed same-sex couples to enjoy the same rights and benefits that opposite sex unions have under the existing legislation. Though, let me be frank; if your union needs government sanction to be legitimate than you are in way over your head and you have far more issues than any legitimate government can even begin to adequately address or to legislate for in the first place.

But then again, no one asked my opinion and so the next battleground will be an overt attack on the religious among us who’s right to freedom of religion, speech, conscience and association will now be challenged. Lord knows, the Canadian Liberal government should not began to contemplate what constitutes legitimacy of religious belief or doctrine for the religious but as sure as the sun rises they have now put themselves squarely in the position where they will have to legislate what beliefs in G-d and religious doctrines are legitimate and what are not in Canada. Furthermore, I have never yet met a liberal who would pass up the opportunity to legislate for the “common good” or who didn’t want the opportunity to play Moses coming down from mountain with the law.

According to this Globe and Mail article Stephen Harper will fight on and vows to make this an issue in the next election. Here’s my two cents: don’t. It’s a pig’s breakfast, and instead, wait for the attack to come against the religious communities in Canada and then become the champion of the rights of the religious for free speech, conscience, belief, and association.

Canadian Trade, Tourists & Foreign Aid enable this Police State to make all this and more possible

The Globe and Mail is carrying a cautionary story of a Cuban-Canadian woman, Onelia Ross who made the mistake of traveling to her native Cuba with two friends for a vacation just like a half a million Canadian visitors did last year. Upon entry into Cuba presented Ms. Ross presented her newly issued Cuban passport as per Cuba’s entry laws and was promptly thrown into prison for a bureaucratic mix-up by the Cuban Embassy in Canada for failing to put the appropriate entry permit in her passport

"They held me for five days while they investigated the case and they didn't let me call a lawyer," Ms. Ross said from her Ottawa home. "It was an undignified way to be treated over essentially a bureaucratic mix-up. When you're in Cuba you have no rights whatsoever." She also said she was manhandled by her jailors and suffered bruising and scrapes. But worst of all was the psychological trauma. "This is what a police state is like."
(…)
They detained her for four hours, and then told her they were transporting her to Havana where she would be placed in an immigration detention centre. On board the plane, Ms. Ross says she bribed a security guard into allowing her to call her family in Havana when she landed. At the detention centre, she was searched, and her money and belongings locked up. "They didn't let me take a change of clothing or a bar of soap, nothing," she said.

She shared a cell with a Cuban-American who also lacked the proper entry documents, and a Mexican woman engaged to a Cuban. The Mexican woman had been denied entry because officials didn't believe her relationship with her fiancé was genuine. "The jail was dirty and there was no water. I slept on a metal bed. Written on the walls were the telephone numbers of all the foreign embassies and notes about how much the prisoners had suffered," Ms. Ross said.

After several interviews, Cuban officials finally allowed her to contact the Canadian embassy for consular assistance. Canadian officials visited her in prison and made inquiries on her behalf. After five days she was released and put on a plane to Ottawa. Cuban authorities kept the $500 (U.S.) in cash that Ms. Ross was carrying, saying it covered the cost of feeding her for five days, and flying her from Holguin to Havana.
(…)
"It was an honest bureaucratic mix-up that could have been resolved," she said. Ms. Ross says the experience saddened her as she realized how terrorized Cubans are. "They are so scared of the government and are scared to talk to you. One of the guards apologized for treating us harshly, saying he would lose his job if he didn't." She said she is speaking out now because she wants the half million Canadian tourists who visit the Caribbean island every year to be aware of the country's dark underbelly. "Canadian tourists don't see what is going on in Cuba because they're only taken to the resorts. They don't see the reality," she said.

This socialist’s paradise thought nothing of incarcerating and physically harming a Canadian citizen for the incompetence of Cuban bureaucrats in Canada and then charges her US$500 for her forced stay in a Cuban prison.
When Canadians choose to trade or spend their dollars in Cuba they become nothing more than silent collaborators with a communist police state that makes this and all other forms of thuggery possible. Taken from the Seattle PI Newsource (Via Babalu Blog)

It was supposed to be a friendly baseball game. But hours before a neighborhood youth group was to play a team from the U.S. mission in Havana, Cuban security agents confiscated the baseballs, bats and mitts.

The agents charged into the home of activist Marcos de Miranda to grab the sports gear, family members said, in the latest and among the most bizarre in a long history of harassment targeting this family of dissidents opposed to communist President Fidel Castro, himself a well known lover of baseball. "It was to be a sports and cultural event - nothing at all political," de Miranda, 28, said in his family's crumbling apartment. "We're denied even the right to play our national sport."
(…)
The baseball equipment had been sent to de Miranda from an exile group in Florida. A bicycle, which he won in an essay contest from an anti-communist group in the Czech Republic, was also confiscated. According to the family, state security agents arrived at the apartment the afternoon before the game. Marcos de Miranda was not there, but his parents were taken to government offices for questioning.

Roberto de Mirando said he was threatened with jail if he didn't control his son's activities. He said he was told the baseball game couldn't take place because the Americans hadn't gotten permission. "I want them to leave this family alone!" said Rivas, the mother. "We are not going to change. Our ideas will stay the same. "Roberto de Miranda, who appeared weak from his ailments, said his family's resolve is unshaken. “They want to silence this family, but I don't think that's possible," he said. "And as a father, I cannot tell my son to retreat from the opposition - he's doing nothing wrong."

Last year a half a million Canadians visited Cuba (according to the Canadian Embassy’s Cuba website) seeking to escape the cold and snow by making Cuba the destination of choice. Cuba has sand, sun and surf as well as being one of the most affordable holiday Caribbean destinations available to Canadians.

A great many Canadians approve of their government’s special relationship with Cuba and Fidel Castro. Many Canadians take it as a point of pride that Canada does not side politically with their American neighbors over Cuba and has maintained not only friendly and trade relations but foreign aid as well.

Let me present you with this information found on the Embassy of Cuba'swebsite detailing the Canadian government’s largess with funds from the public purse:

Links of economic cooperation with Canada were resumed in 1994 with specific donations aimed to food programs and the public health care sector. Since 1996, two Canadian-International-Development-Agency-(CIDA)–founded programs have been developed; the first from 1996 to 2000 and the second from 2000 to 2004. Recently, a third program (2004-2009), the first long-term program, was agreed on, with a budget of 22.5 millions in Canadian dollars, independently of the resources allocated to other cooperation projects with universities, NGO’s and other institutions.

The first two programs of cooperation were centred in the fields of macro economy, health, food aid and security, environment, while in the present program, the fields of macro economy, community development, and health are developed on mutual basis. In the field of community development, the five eastern provinces are given priority.

In the year 2004, though it was the end of the second program and beginning of the third, a high level of operation was kept, with around 90 projects being developed by the end of the 2004. That year, a very significant contribution was the donation by the NGO Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity (MEMO), made up by 11 40-feet containers of medical equipment and accessories for the National System of Health, worth 6,5 millions of Canadian dollars. Two hospitals, one in Placetas and another one in Santa Clara, Villa Clara province, were beneficiated by this donation.

It must be outlined that during the period 1995-2004, the NGO Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC) has kept a steady relation with MINSAP (Cuban Ministry of Health) and MINVEC (Cuban Ministry for Foreign Investment and Cooperation), donating medical equipment and accessories, medicines, and vaccines, worth 30 millions of Canadian dollars, taking into account our priorities.

Cuba’s health care system is being funded directly by our tax dollars and as long as Canadians and our government choose to spend their trade, holiday or tax dollars in Cuba; you are collaborating and enabling the Castro government to continue to enslave its people.

(G&M story tipped off by Neale News)

Bulldozed on the 4th of July

Davids Medienkritik’s blog is reporting that the Berlin City Council has "decided to allow the razing of the Checkpoint Charlie Monument."

The monument, which consists of over 1,000 crosses adorned with the names of those murdered attempting to escape Communist East Germany for freedom, will be bulldozed on the 4th of July!

The Checkpoint Charlie monument scheduled for destruction July 4th in Berlin: Each cross has the name, and in some cases, photo of a victim of Communism murdered attempting to escape East Germany during the Cold War.

Apparently, an electric mix of socialists (Social Democrats) and former East German hard-line communists dominates the Berlin City Council. Davids Medienkritik has offered this explanation taken from Deutsche Welle:

"The Berlin Senate for Urban Planning, one of the project's main detractors, fears that the capital is fast becoming a "Disneyland" version of its former self and insists the wall monument is too reminiscent of the Holocaust project at the Brandenburg Gate. The authority stresses that the East German dictatorship cannot be equated with the atrocities of the Third Reich."

It really is worse than it sounds - go read the rest.

Only the lucky grow old

The demands of real life have overtaken the need to post anything on the blog. I have been busy readying the Last Amazon and her brother for their summer vacation at Nana’s house and have not much chance to sit down and read or write much of anything. I rose on Sunday at an ungodly hour even for me only to discovered the answering machine light flashing furiously. What I heard sent me rushing to read the online local papers.

I first met Suzanne when she was a teenager before the Last Amazon was born. Suzanne was present at the Last Amazon’s first birthday party and the Last Amazon was so taken with her that she named her first birthday doll for her cousin Susan. When a byline touches your life, blogging becomes irrelevant.

Blood Money

How would it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul in return? That’s an ancient question that a prophet asked in another time and place but the timelessness of the question makes it very apt for everyone who values their freedom to ask CISCO System, Alcatel and Juniper Network executives today.

These are just the latest corporations to join the ranks of Western IT companies (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft etc.) who are willing to sell out the freedom of others for a larger slice of the bottomline. Make no mistake, I support free market capitalism but not at the price of appeasement for those governments who seek the enslavement of their population or to allow those government’s the tools to suppress dissent or the basic freedoms of Life, Liberty and the Individual pursuit of Happiness.

I wholeheartedly support a free market for those who can trade freely and of their own violation. I have argued for years against the expansion of trade with totalitarian governments as I have yet to see tangible proof that free trade with totalitarian governments has resulted in a freer society for those people subjugated. I defy you to show me how Cuba, Iran or Sudan have become freer societies because Canada trades with them. Exactly how long should one reasonably wait to see the alleged benefit of free trade begin to translate into an expansion of human rights in countries like Saudi Arabia or China?

Chris, my fellow Red Ensign Blogger from Myrick and group blog member of AsiaPundit sent an email to our fearless Brigade commander, Ray at Raging Kraut:

posted by: myrick
Email: myrickblog@gmail.com
URL: http://www.asiapundit.com
Location: Shanghai

Hi Ray;

This is off topic. I'm not above link-whoring but I wouldn't not
post this if the circumstances weren't somewhat urgent. China has
ressurected it's blackout of TypePad hosted blogs.

BLACKLISTED

Pressuring the CPC is impossible of course, so I'm hoping to shame
the collaborators:

CENSORSHIP

If you are reading this blog, or run your own blog, you are actively taking part in the right of exercising free speech. These companies are actively collaborating with a totalitarian regime to suppress dissent, knowledge and free speech in People’s Republic of China.

How many of us blog readers or bloggers would idly stand by as our government actively sought the technological tools to suppress our rights to free speech, expression or association? The people of China are no less human than us, and they deserve no less freedom. Individually, none of us can influence the Communist government of China, but as Chris points out we can influence and protest to those who seek would seek profit in the enslavement of others. And I would remind you of the words of Victor Davis Hanson whose creed is quoted in the banner of the Last Amazon, It is never wrong to stand on the side of freedom – never.

Please choose to make a stand for freedom today.

Are some Canadians more equal than others?

Maybe I just missed the news, as I have been somewhat distracted dealing with an ill child, but it seems to me that our fearless leader, Mr. Dithers, has yet to come forward to pledge support or aid to the people of Alberta who are dealing with a once-in-200-years flood to end all floods.

I remember the response to the Quebec ice storm or the appeal from the Mayor of Toronto for federal assistance when Toronto experienced a large sudden snow fall but the silence from the federal liberals just appears deafening to me. Someone tell me -am I only just hard of hearing?

A day late and a few bombs short

The Globe and Mail is finally carrying an article on the failed Palestinian Medical Centre suicide bomber. Yesterday, the only story carried in the dead tree version were two pictures taken from the video stills of Wafa Ibrahim al-Biss attempting to denote her bombs at an Israeli checkpoint.

The G&M in its article has failed to acknowledge that Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade is the militant wing of Fatah – the political party of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, and then offered up the justification that the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade planned the suicide mission in a medical centre as an attempt to derail the talks held yesterday between Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas on the upcoming Israeli disengagement from Gaza. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the Globe and Mail should know better by now.

Palestinian consent or assistance is not a requirement for the Israeli’s to disengage from Gaza. Furthermore, the Israeli’s are under no current Road Map obligations until the Palestinian Authority dismantles the terrorist infrastructure it has allowed to exist and flourish in the Territories since Oslo. Palestinian co-operation would be nice but so would be winning the lottery and neither is necessarily relevant to the Israeli disengagement in Gaza.

Furthermore, since the alleged Abbas “period of calm” that Abbas has negotiated with the various and sundry terrorist groups including those under his direct control (Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade) it has yet to produce even one single week period where all terror attacks have ceased against Israelis. From the rocket barrages on Israeli homes, sniper attacks on the highways, stabbings or stonings in the streets; the attacks have thundered on ceaselessly. There may have been only one successful suicide bombing in the alleged “period of calm” but that speaks to the overall competence of the IDF and the Shin Bet services rather than any gentleman’s agreement among terrorists.

There was just one purpose, one justification for the planned suicide bomb attack on an Israeli medical centre filled with doctors, nurses, the ill and their families in Israel, and it has nothing to do with occupation or land. The Nazi’s called it Judenrein but I know it as genocide. But maybe the problem for a liberal newspaper is that it is difficult to remain a sympathic supporter of a political party that can claim genocide as a political mandate and still hope to perceived as a credible source for information, news and analysis. Let’s face it, it’s a no brainer to use that old standby excuse that failed suicide bombings are attempts to sabotage negotiations rather than admit you have been backing the wrong horse for the wrongs races all along.

Here’s a question that begs asking and analysis - why after the capture and interrogation of Wafa Ibrahim al-Biss has the IDF chosen to target exclusively Islamic Jihad and not include Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade members as well? Recruiting among those who hold Israeli humanitarian visas to enter Israel in order to target Israeli medical centers for bombing should be deemed special enough for the additional scrutiny by the IDF.

There is nothing new under the sun

In other news from the Middle East, a psychologist from Gaza has received death threats for trying to establish a Party of Love. From the Jerusalem Post:

A psychologist from the Gaza Strip who announced his intention to establish the first Palestinian Party of Love has received death threats from many Palestinians, who are accusing him of promoting "immoral" values. Dr. Hassan Nurani, a resident of Deir al-Balah, first came to the attention of the Palestinian public earlier this year when he declared his intention to run for the elections to succeed Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority.
(...)
Nurani's platform called for the building of a "civilized and moral society" free of corruption and gangsters. Now, six months after the election for the chairmanship of the PA, the psychologist is back in the news – this time with the idea of establishing the Party of Love to fight the "culture of death and hatred in Palestinian society." Nurani said the idea to establish the new party was formed in the wake of growing anarchy and lawlessness in the Palestinian territories. "Love is the only way to salvation," he explained. "Once love prevails among us, the signs of hatred, ignorance, bigotry, fear, death, corruption and anarchy will disappear."

Nurani distributed a statement in the Gaza Strip urging Palestinians to abandon violence and support his Party of Love. "The stupidity of death must be stopped," he said. "Love purifies our souls and enlightens us. Let's open our hearts and minds and declare the launching of the Party of Love." Nurani's statement, published in the Gaza-based Donia al-Watan magazine, drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians. "Some of the reactions to my initiative included death threats," he said on Monday. "Some people called on the armed groups to prevent the establishment of the Party of Love."

One Palestinian wrote to Nurani that his idea was nothing but an "American-Zionist plot." Another Gaza resident responded: "May God protect us against such weird and dangerous ideas. The next thing we will hear is that we need a party for gays and lesbians." A third Palestinian sent the following question: "Do you want to die soon, Dr. Nurani?" However, the psychologist said the death threats would not deter him from pursuing his plan. "These negative reactions have only strengthened my determination and belief in the idea of love," he said. "They also underline the need to confront the culture of hatred and death that has struck its roots in the minds and hearts of many of us."

How soon before they nail him to a cross?

Would your mother offer to let this woman your old room?

As any regular reader of my blog knows, I am a mother. I enjoy being a mother which came as a complete shock and surprise to me. My mother had long given up the idea of ever having any grandchildren and was resigned to introducing my dog as her only grand child. If I have any regrets about having children, it is that I was so a product of my early conditioning in Trudeaupia that I did not think that being a mother was a worthwhile goal to aspire to, and therefore, I got a bit of a late start on having children. If I knew then, what I have know now; I would have had started earlier and had at least 6 children.

One of the interesting things about having children; is that it connects one to the community in ways that are not really easily imagined in a pre-childless state. There are very few mothers that I can meet that I cannot sit down with and find a common bond or point of reference. That being the case what I cannot comprehend for the life of me is what these mothers are thinking in this article in the Toronto Star:

Strangers are stepping forward to offer Karla Homolka places to live and even financial support when she's released from prison in less than two weeks, says her lawyer, Sylvie Bordelais.

The offers of help are coming mostly from women, some of them mothers, who believe that Canada's most notorious female inmate deserves a break in starting her new life after serving the full 12-year sentence for her role in the slayings of teenagers Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, Bordelais said in a wide-ranging — and rare — interview with the Toronto Star at her office in the northeast end of this city.

While not disclosing specific details about the would-be benefactors, Bordelais said some people are even offering to share an apartment with Homolka. It's expected that the 35-year-old St. Catharines native will go on welfare and live in Montreal.

I could comprehend it, if was Homolka’s mother. What mother would willingly want to believe that a beloved child would plan and participate in the rape of her other daughter or other people’s daughters’ for the sake of her husband’s pleasure? Any defense offered by a daughter who could commit such an act would be preferable than having to face that hard cold fact. Her own mother isn’t offering Homolka her own room back, so why on earth would anyone else’s mother? Talk about bringing a whole new meaning to coming home for Christmas. The article does not say, and I can only hope, that these women or mothers are either Quakers or members of the Salvation Army as the members of both these groups have made an art form out of forgiveness. Otherwise, how else could one sleep safe at night knowing that your own death may just be a few feet away?