Protecting "Traditional" Marriage . . . .

Let's put this whole gay marriage thing to bed (so to speak).




"You're not dead yet."

That oughta do it . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Smoke 'Em if You've Got 'Em . . . .

Quite the interesting contraption, would you not agree?

Used extensively in Ottawa, Victoria and Washington, DC.

(Click to enlarge)

Gives a whole new meaning to "Let's go outside and light up a butt," eh ? ? ? ?

H/T "drf"

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Walmart Peso

ACCORDING TO THE URBAN DICTIONARY, that's the

US dollar. As the US dollar continues to lose value, it becomes synonymous with the cheap crap from Walmart. Used mainly by Canadians.
"Sorry, we don't take Walmart pesos.", server telling American tourist in a Toronto bar.

Neat site, with other definitions relevant to Wal-Mart:

Walmart Children
Children, ages 1 through 11, seen at Wal-Mart after 10:30pm no matter whether it is a weekday school night, holiday night, weekend night, accompanying their parents while shopping. Usually found in packs of 2 to 5 with one or two of the younger stuck drooling in the shopping cart while grabbing at items within their reach. 2 to 3 of the older ones will run amok with the parents in total ignorance of the damage being created. They cross all racial lines. 

Walmart Creature
A 600 pound whale of a person fused to a small scooter that goes regularly for food at the Mcdonald's. 

Walmart Troll
Grotesque, stocky bodied humanoid inhabiting walmart stores. usually wearing a tweety bird shirt and sweat pants. there is usually an accompanying trail of offspring, also referred to as a "failure trail" Can be any race, but usually white or hispanic.

Walmart Bingo
To play walmart bingo, all you have to do is google "walmart bingo". find the playing card, and print it. You then go to walmart and attempt to get a row horizontal, vertical, or diagonal! They have squares that say:
- "rat tail" hair style  - kid with no shoes  - unattended crying children

THEN THERE'S PEOPLE OF WALMART, a blog where you can see the lumpen proletariat in all their oblivious glory. Be sure and check out the "Hate" section: these people just don't get it. I mean, we can't all look like movie stars, but . . .

Call of Duty?

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

From Ford... in Europe

74.5 miles per gallon or 3.8 litres/100 km. (62 mpg US). Available in January 2010.

Not available in North America... ever.

Why? Because the Europeans got tough with their auto makers.

Read more.

I should add, (because you're not mad enough yet), that this vehicle is NOT new technology. It is powered by a good old fashioned, inefficient, internal combustion engine. All they did was tweak it and add a regenerative braking system.

Nova Scotia Jurisprudence

ACCORDING TO THR, Esq., which proclaims itself to be a blog which focuses on how the entertainment and media industries are impacted and influenced by the law, in Nova Scotia, you can't play like Adam Sandler. 

Apparently, the Honourable Justice Arthur J. LeBlanc of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, ruled that the "Happy Gilmore shot" breaches a duty of care on the golf course. In case you missed it a HGS comes from the 1996 film "Happy Gilmore", where Adam Sandler showcases an unorthodox golf swing to win the Tour Championship and save his grandmother's home from IRS debt. 

In the case, the plaintiff sued after the defendant tried to impress his golfing buddies during a bachelor party outing that included beer, tequila, and marijuana. On the 16th hole, under the influence, Travis Hayter whipped out his "Happy Gilmore shot," which the court defined in 2008 as "running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run."

The ball leapt up and struck the plaintiff in the wrist, then in the chest, causing permanent damage to the radial nerve. The plaintiff no longer was able to return to his former work as a woodsman on account of the incident.

THR, Esq. has a veritable cornucopia of titillation for the curious:

• Chris Brown's former agents sue for $475K
• Judge: Dixie Chick didn't defame man by suggesting role in murders
• Hollywood Docket: Meet the Comcast/NBCU lawyers; AT&T backs off Verizon suit; Redbox adds claim
• $110 million lawsuit says 'Bruno' and Letterman defamed Palestinian leader
• Can a science-fiction movie infringe a tech patent?
• Veoh seeks $3 mil in attorneys fees from Universal Music
• Hollywood Docket: Sumner wins; Smashing Pumpkins settle; MMA promoter fights DMX
• Has Bravo already agreed to put White House crashers on 'Real Housewives'?
• Business manager vs. lawyer in Black Eyed Peas spat
• Bob Yari faces contempt hearing, fines in secret battle with UTA
• Hollywood Docket: Warhol child porn?; Hasselbeck book infringement?; NY Post discrimination?
• Tyler Perry accused of stealing gospel song for 'Madea'
• Hollywood Docket: J-Lo sex tape as evidence?; Roger Avary rats himself out; video game disability
• Winona Ryder called to testify as expert in 'alienation'
• Who will be the first to sue 'The Biggest Loser'?
• 50 Cent settles beef with Taco Bell
• Hollywood Docket: Hulu clamps down; Wesley Snipes appeals sentence; domain theft indictment
• 'Daily Show' comedy turns into Iran spy drama

Who's the armchair quarterback, Chuckie?

One might also ask of loudmouth and Fox News Sean Hannity stand-in, Charles Adler, who he's calling an "armchair quarterback" when referring to Canadian military service. (Emphasis mine)

I talked to Jimmy's mother this week. James Hayward Arnal loved this country more than any of you quiche-eating, latte-loving, armchair quarterbacks.

Not only is that very old and stolen from the Bush noise machine, it raises a question.... Chuck.

Who the fuck are you? You've never crossed the threshold of a recruiting office door. You're nothing but a carbon copy of Limbaugh, Beck, and the half-dozen others that are driving the least insane of American conservatives away from the Republican Party.

Among other questions.

Candy-assed, loudmouthed, non-combatant, pencil-necked, coward.

A beautiful survivor

MY FRIEND LESLEY lives just up the street from Honest Ed's, and thus is in the heart of urban Toronto. She is an observant person, and quick with a camera, to catch this female Peregrine that took five in her back yard on Tuesday. Appears to be missing a leg and a toe. An indomitable survivor, about as far away in spirit from Stevie as you can get.

Tales from our Former 'Hood . . . .

More vindication of our decision to vacate our former Florida locale for a somewhat more civilized Vancouver, BC, Canada:

Police: Burglar showers, tells residents ‘Obama let him in'

November 28, 2009

_________ - A man accused of breaking into a ________ home and taking a shower reportedly told residents who showed up “President Obama let him in” the house.

According to a ________ Police Department report, St. Petersbug resident Donald Leon May, 48, entered a home in the 400 block of East Railroad Avenue Nov. 18 through an unlocked back door and took a shower.

While in the shower, two juvenile children who lived at the house entered with a friend. Thinking their dad was home, one of the children entered the bathroom and “saw a male in the shower who was not his father,” the report states.

“The male in the shower stated ‘Obama let him in’” and told the boy to “get out,” the report continues.

The children ran to a neighbor’s house and called police. When they arrived May was still in the house with nothing on but a “towel wrapped around his lower body,” the report states.

May declined to comment when interrogated by police other than to say, “The Yellow Brick Road brought him to __________,” according to the report.

Three days before the incident, May was arrested for trespassing and failure to leave the premises at another property.

He was released from the ___________ County Jail on the trespassing charge two hours before his Nov. 18 arrrest.

May is is charged with felony burglary to an occupied dwelling and petty theft.

Looks like he may have been the Scarecrow without a brain on that Yellow Brick Road.

Counting the ways we are fortunate to have escaped . . . .

H/T "drf"

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Crap

Yes, this happened on Sunday and it's now Wednesday and why don't we just move along?

Because the odious little prick dabbling at being prime minister pulled a play out of the Rovian handbook of gutter politics and glued himself to "the troops". Or, more accurately, he told a group of Canadian naval sailors, to their faces, that all but Harper himself (and his loyal party supporters) were not to be trusted.

In short, we, you uniformed service personnel and us Harper Conservatives are as one. It may be me, Harper the Divine, being attacked in the House of Commons, but I will translate that to include you, standing there in your naval combat dress.

Let me just say this: living as we do, in a time when some in the political arena do not hesitate before throwing the most serious of allegations at our men and women in uniform, based on the most flimsy of evidence, remember that Canadians from coast to coast to coast are proud of you and stand behind you, and I am proud of you, and I stand beside you.

Said on the flight deck of HMCS Ville de Quebec. Coyne gives it the appropriate label and, as has already been said, when the Harperites lose their right-wing noise-rags, there's a shark out there which looks like it's been jumped.

What Harper (along with most of his sycophants) doesn't seem to fathom is that a majority of service personnel don't like politicians of any stripe. While the very nature of their chosen occupation may seem to mesh nicely with the dogma of Harper's party, the conservatism of service personnel rarely extends beyond the insular social structure to which they belong. They won't accept that world being penetrated by a pure political animal.

But let us come to Commodus, to whom it should have been very easy to hold the empire, for, being the son of Marcus, he had inherited it, and he had only to follow in the footsteps of his father to please his people and soldiers; but, being by nature cruel and brutal, he gave himself up to amusing the soldiers and corrupting them, so that he might indulge his rapacity upon the people; on the other hand, not maintaining his dignity, often descending to the theatre to compete with gladiators, and doing other vile things, little worthy of the imperial majesty, he fell into contempt with the soldiers, and being hated by one party and despised by the other, he was conspired against and killed.

Of course Harper likely sees himself as much more intelligent and capable than some 16th Century, Florentine political philosopher.

The Joy of Flying

THE UK TELEGRAPH has an article on large people in ergonomic distress. According to Alastair Jamieson, the picture above, of an obese passenger squeezed into an economy airline seat has reopened a debate about how airlines deal with growing numbers of oversized passengers.

The coxswain of the boat is to be excused...

In the Canadian Navy it is the responsibility of the Coxswain of a ship's boat to ensure that crew and passengers are wearing the appropriate safety gear and that all persons aboard are seated and exercising the appropriate safety awareness.

It is the responsibility of the Officer Of the Watch to ensure that the persons boarding a ship's boat are properly dressed... including life jackets.

It is a requirement in the Canadian Navy that all personnel in an open boat wear, at a minimum, inflatable life jackets.

Unless it's Stephen Harper.

The Coxswain of a ship's boat has the right to refuse to proceed until all personnel aboard are observing regulations... even civvies.

The Coxswain of the boat pictured above can be excused for believing Harper had a positive buoyancy life jacket on under his shirt.

That, and any exercise of the authority vested in the boat's Coxswain would have resulted in Harper's PMO hit-squad exacting career-smashing retribution, smearing the Coxswain's family and cutting funding for naval shipbuilding projects.

Oh... right.

(Photo: Stephen Harper is ferried to HMCS Ville de Quebec in Trinidad... without wearing the required life jacket. Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Tis the season

Subway etiquette is important in Tokyo. No matter what happens, no matter how crazy the situation you must not react. A stoic countenance must be maintained. You must not complain or you will be the nail that sticks up. As a result, some people get away with murder on the trains. Molesting women is not as common as it once was, but it is still such a problem that some train lines in Tokyo have "Women Only" carriages during morning rush hour. And almost no one ever gives up their seat for the elderly or the heavily pregnant.

Poor subway etiquette and people's reluctance to complain has lead to the development of a series of monthly posters in Tokyo train station reminding people about how to behave on the train.

Every year, Japanese companies pay their salarymen a pair of bonuses - one at the start of summer and one at the end of the year. Traditionally, the end-of-year bonus is celebrated with massive drinking parties at which dour, serious-minded captains of industry drink like university frosh frat boys on Spring Break who have just gotten out of jail and are vacationing with the heir to a brewing empire after crossing the Sahara on foot. Leading to posters like this one.

This year's spring bonus was reckoned to be a very small one at most companies due to the worldwide financial crash and no one is optimistic about the year-end either. Which I guess explains the cans in the latest poster, what with convenience store or vending machine beers being the poor man's alternative to the local izakaya.

hat-tip to Shibuya 246

I know, you think I'm exaggerating. This was taken last night by one of my co-workers

hat tip to the Bald Avenger

Dying to Look Sexy . . . .

It's amazing to me how vanity can take over one's life - and death, apparently.

Today's Toronto Star reports:

Beauty queen dies for 'firmer behind'

December 01, 2009

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina–A 38-year-old former Miss Argentina has died from complications after undergoing cosmetic surgery on her buttocks.

Solange Magnano, a mother of twins who won the crown in 1994, died of a pulmonary embolism Sunday after three days in critical condition following a gluteoplasty in Buenos Aires.

_______________


Fashion designer and friend Roberto Piazza said the procedure also involved injections, and the liquid "went to her lungs and brain."

"A woman who had everything lost her life to have a slightly firmer behind," he said.

_______________


Juan Carlos Seiler, former president of the Buenos Aires Association of plastic surgeons, told the Times of London that the doctor who performed the procedure might not have been "a real professional."

Firm butt and dead.

How's that for a trade-off ? ? ? ?

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Did Christmas come early for the NDP?

THE HST, AKA THE "HARPER SALES TAX", appears to be a done deal for the folks who live in Ontario. Iggy and the Liberals have declared that they will support Stevie's odious tax-grab.

The question is, if you are an Ontario voter, how do you feel about this? How will it affect your vote in the next Federal election? The provincial and federal Liberals have sided with Mr. Grudge. So, is voting Liberal any different than voting for Stevie?

Or will the real winner be Stevie? If the Liberals stiff in Ontario, and the NDP cannot get a message together that works (par for the course), and do only modestly better, Stevie might just get that majority. The horror . . .

Or maybe it's a Green opportunity . . .

I just don't see how this works for Iggy. As to the next provincial election, well, McGuinty always has reminded me of Anthony Perkins and the Bates Motel.

900ft Jesus is back!

'Just When I thought I Was Out...They Pull Me Back In' Dept.

900ft Jesus is back with new digs at "Of Gods & Other Monsters" so drop by and say hello.

The trouble with quitting blogging is you've already amassed this wealth of research and every day you watch Steve and the mainstream Medea royally massacre the message and then heave it overboard ... and you think - well, I've got something to say about that.

Welcome back, 900ft Jesus. Love the message from Newt.

I want a Torture Inquiry

To:Prime Minister Stephen Harper pm@pm.gc.ca

CC:NDP Leader Jack Layton Layton.J@parl.gc.ca,

Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff Ignatieff.M@parl.gc.ca

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe DucepG@parl.gc.ca

.

Subject: I Want a Torture Inquiry

.

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

.

I am very concerned by the recent testimony of senior intelligence officer Richard Colvin.

.

According to Mr. Colvin, who served in Afghanistan and is currently posted to Canada's embassy in Washington, the government received repeated warnings that people who were taken prisoner and transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops were tortured by the Afghans. Yet the Canadian government failed to act.

.

I support the call for an independent public inquiry into the possibility that government and military officials abandoned their responsibility to ensure Canada acted within Canadian and International law, and upheld Canadian values.

.

I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]

.

With thanks to Thwap and Mentarch for picking this up.

It was mentioned in comments at Mentarch's that petitions are useless.

Verifiable petitions like this one from Ceasefire are read aloud in the House of Commons.

How else are they gonna know we're paying attention?

Who's with us?

It figures . . .

A Blue Black Friday . . . .

I don't want to be Scrooge here (well, maybe I do) but personally, I think this is a positive development. People just don't need all the crap they buy!

Per Reuters this afternoon:

Shoppers spent less over Black Friday weekend
Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:53pm EST | By Nicole Maestri

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Consumers spent significantly less at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010.

While shoppers turned out in force as early as Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, many said they had zeroed in on highly discounted items, would buy only what they needed and would walk out of a store if they did not find a good deal.

_______________

Consumers said they will have spent nearly 8 percent less on average, or about $343 per person, over the weekend that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and runs through Sunday, according to the NRF.

_______________

Shoppers interviewed across the country by Reuters over the weekend said they were lured by bargains, but would stick to pared-down budgets.

"If they don't have rebates and sales before Christmas, I don't think people are going to go back shopping after Black Friday," said Joel Wincowski, a higher education consultant shopping at a Best Buy store in Plattsburgh, New York. He bought an Xbox 360 game console for $299.

"We're going to cut back on everybody, even the kids."

As "drf" has advocated for years:

"Simplify your life" . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

All About Bennie . . .

HUMANITIES is a magazine published by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.

Their web site is a fine, diverse creation, and has an article by Amy Lifson, titled "Ben-Hur: The Book That Shook the World". It's a fascinating look at the book, first published in 1880, and especially its author, General Lew Wallace, who was a Union Civil War hero.

For most of us, Ben-Hur is the Charlton Heston movie. It was the third try at the story. The first was done in 1907, two years after the author's death. Ms. Lifson notes:

Wallace died in 1905 at the age of seventy-seven. Later that same year, his study was opened to the public. Two years later, the first fifteen-minute, unauthorized film version was released and Wallace’s son took up the cause, suing the filmmaker for using the plot and title of Ben-Hur without permission of the author’s estate. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and firmly established the copyright infringement laws for the movie industry that are still in use today. A synopsis of the ruling hangs on the wall of the Study next to the only extant image from that film, showing the chariot race: All the other prints were destroyed by law.

The second version was done in 1925, with Ramon Novarro playing Ben-Hur, and then in 1959, the third version:

The film cost MGM $15 million to make, won the studio a record eleven Oscars, and was seen by ninety-eight million people in cinemas across the United States. It was the only Hollywood movie to make the Vatican’s official list of approved religious films, and, like clockwork, it is rebroadcast on network television every Easter. And yet the movie’s acclaim still does not compare to the waves of religious ecstasy that followed the publication of the novel, which is the most influential Christian book written in the nineteenth century.

The most influential Christian book written in the nineteenth century? No foolin':

Since its first publication, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ has never been out of print. It outsold every book except the Bible until Gone With the Wind came out in 1936, and resurged to the top of the list again in the 1960s. By 1900 it had been printed in thirty-six English-language editions and translated into twenty others, including Indonesian and Braille.

Victorians who swore off novels because of their immoral influence eagerly picked up Ben-Hur—were even encouraged to by their pastors. It became required reading in grade schools across the United States. For those who considered theater sinful, the spectacle of the Broadway version lured them in for twenty-one years, not to mention the touring show that required four entire trains to transport all the scenery and livestock. More than twenty million people saw Ben-Hur on stage between 1899 and 1920, complete with live horses running on hidden treadmills to recreate the chariot race.

Gen. Wallace was a rather exceptional chap:

The book made Lew Wallace a celebrity, sought out for speaking engagements, political endorsements, and newspaper interviews. “I would not give a tuppence for the American who has not at least tried to do one of three things,” Wallace told a New York Times reporter in 1893. “That person lacks the true American spirit who has not tried to paint a picture, write a book, or get out a patent on something.” Or, he added, “tried to play some musical instrument. There you have the genius of the true American in those four—art, literature, invention, music.”

Not coincidentally, Lew Wallace himself excelled at all four.

Go check out Amy's fine article.

Don't let the jargon get in the way . . .

MANY YEARS AGO, back in the late 60's, there was a tired store front on the south side of College St., just east of Spadina. It was the office of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). A dreary, worn, gray edifice, with a tired display of irrelevance in the window. Walking by, I noticed that there was a collection of some 30+ books, all beautifully leather-bound, on sale: the collected writings of Josef Stalin. I think they wanted $50 for the whole set, now probably a fundamental, objective part of a Toronto land-fill. 

 

Ah, the turgid, insightful dialectic of Marxist philosophy! The cure for insomnia, tovarich.

 

What brought that to mind was that I stumbled on this site earlier this week: it proclaims itself to be The Axis of Logic. It is a delightful dinosaur, a repository of the "true blue" old-school socialist mind-set.

 

Anyway, the site has an article titled, "Neoliberalism and the Dynamics of Capitalist Development in Latin America". Here's the preamble:

"Those who think they understand the future of the left on the continent may be surprised by what is happening in countries ranging from right wing governments such as Colombia to leftist states like Venezuela after reading this document. Time and energy given to building socialism and combatting the Global Corporate Empire everywhere in the world will be informed by neo-capitalist movements across Latin America. This analysis deserves careful study."

"Global Corporate Empire", "neo-capitalist", "Neoliberalism", oh my! To the barricades, comrade! 

The jargon they use keeps them from clearly appreciating what is really going on. Their fixation on pejorative definition, like "neoliberalism" indicates their continuing tunnel-vision. Same as it ever was. You can see why dogmatic socialists were never very big with stand-up comedy, unlike the Groucho-Marxists.

 

Check out a 1991-95 10-part series, Russia's War: Blood on the Snow. Doesn't tell you anything you don't already know, but it starts with the death of Lenin, and follows Uncle Joe's rise to absolute power, with some interesting film and comments, especially from Gulag survivors. Saw it listed as a DVD at Rotten Tomatoes.

Ineedadinnerjacket strikes again

THE LA TIMES HAS A DISTURBING REPORT: According to Alexandra Sandels in Beirut,  less than a year after authorities stormed the offices of Iranian human-rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, taking sensitive documents and her computer, unidentified authorities have now allegedly taken the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma from Ebadi's bank safety deposit box, said officials in Norway, which administers the prize.

Outraged officials in Oslo say the incident is unprecedented and has sent shock waves through the Norwegian foreign ministry.

In its statement, the Norwegian foreign ministry also expressed concern over the treatment of Ebadi's husband by Iranian authorities.

They say his pension is not being paid and that his bank account has been frozen. He also was detained in Tehran earlier this fall and subsequently beaten, they said.

Grrrrrrr. The revolution cannot come soon enough. Meanwhile, I can daydream about Ineedadinnerjacket's encounter with a .50 Barrett . . . at 2 kilometers. The 700-grain Excedrin headache. John Moses B. would be so proud.

Shiny object!

CBC:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the Copenhagen climate change meeting next month after all, his office said Thursday — a day after saying he would not go.

Harper decided Thursday to attend the meeting to work on a new climate change agreement after the U.S. president and Chinese premier announced that they will show up, his spokesman said.

Wow, there's a twofer for the Harper. Prisoner scandal sprouting more legs than a centipede, and a bunch of other World Stage superstars jetting off to Denmark. A shiny object and a chance to let Airshow and the Generals wear the torture problem for a while. Careful Steve, leaving the boys out to hang like that might not end well for you...the shiny object you see might actually be a steely sort of glint.

CBC and expert hacks...

Thanks a bunch CBC. Your 6am news (which I normally don't mind waking up to, by the way) featured an interview with Mercedes Stephenson* about the prisoner issue in Afghanistan. In her unassailable University of Calgary/Pentagon/MIT/DND/Fraser Institute wisdom, Ms. Stephenson proceeded to inform bleary waking listeners such as myself that (paraphrased and summaried from my memory):

'it's an incredible stretch to think brave Canadian soldiers could face war crimes trials, let alone commit them and besides, the Taleban don't wear uniforms so they're not covered under the Geneva conventions [implicitly: who gives a damn what happens to them anyway, if torture really happened, so what].'

Waking up to this kind of drivel shits me to tears, especially when it amounts to a more credentialed variation the "support the war or fuck you" mantra repeated ad nauseum by the wingnuts and the consequent complete dismissal of contrary information. Especially when billed as a University of Calgary 'expert'. Sure this is part of the public discourse, and valid inasmuch as it articulates the rightwing braintrust's position on the prisoners, but not first thing in the morning, please.


*Ms. Stephenson seems to be early flyer of a hawkling, so maybe her apparent dismissal of the seriousness of the prisoner torture issue is a consequence of her naivety and early seduction by defence and security types on both sides of the 49th. So perhaps there's still hope for this one. If I were her, I'd probably think about not doing any more CBC interviews until I was certain I wasn't about to put my foot in my mouth.

Cooking lessons

JALOPNIK IS A CAR ENTHUSIAST SITE with a great sense of humour. On this American Thanksgiving, they have offered the nec-plus-ultra of trailer-park cuisine: the deep-fried turkey. For more details, just click on the link.

The recipe's ingredients:

• Turkey Fryer Setup
• Engine Hoist
• 5-gallons Peanut Oil
• Propane and Propane Accessories
• Service Cart or Similar
• Turkey
• Bailing Wire
• Hand Tools

Bon Appetit!

Richard Colvin vs the Generals.

.

From Richard Colvin's reports beginning in May 2006 :

3. Of the XXX detainees we interviewed XXX said XXX had been whipped with cables, shocked with electricity and/or otherwise "hurt" while in NDS custody in Kandahar. This period of alleged abuse lasted from between XXX and XXX days, and was carried out in XXX and XXX. XXX detainees still had XXX on XXX body; XXX seemed traumatized. This alleged abuse would have occurred before the new arrangement between the governments of Canada and Afghanistan was signed

'Torture' not mentioned in Afghan detainee reports: Generals

"Three generals declared Wednesday that there was no mention of the word "torture" in reports from a senior diplomat who asserts that he repeatedly warned the government against surrendering Afghan detainees to local authorities because they would almost certainly be abused.

One of the recipients of the widely distributed reports, which Colvin says were copied to 76 government and military personnel in Ottawa and Afghanistan, was retired Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, who was then the head of oversees deployment.
Gauthier told the Commons committee that none of Colvin's 2006 reports, including his May document, mentioned anything about torture.

Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's top soldier during Colvin's posting in Afghanistan in 2006-07 : "There was simply nothing there."

So there you have it - because Richard Colvin neglected to include the word "torture" in his accounts of detainees allegedly being "whipped with cables and shocked with electricity", there was no torture and the generals apparently feel justified in having failed to read his reports in the first place.

.

h/t Dr. Dawg

The Chris and Stephen Show . . . .

Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry fire shots across the bow at the catholic church.

These are two clips from the BBC's Intelligence Squared presentation of "The catholic church is a Force for Good." Hitchens is up first followed by Ann Widdecombe - a recent convert to catholocism - and Fry finishes up.





bennie and the jerks: 0

Our side: 1 . . . .


H/T BTO

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Outsourcing to the max

THE COMPANY FORMERLY KNOWN AS BLACKWATER, now with a suitably inscrutable moniker of Xe, seems to be a major player in the campaign against the jihaddis in Pakistan. According to Jeremy Scahill's article in The Nation, 

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. 

I'm probably mistaken, but to this old fart, it appears to me that using mercenaries is a sure sign of decadent imperialism. Countries have to look after their perceived interests, but Xe smacks of cynicism and decadence. If you'd like a précis, ol' FABIUS MAXIMUS has a list of salient points about the above. Also, if you haven't seen it, do rent a copy of "War, Inc.", a black comedy about America's first totally out-sourced war. Love the hot sauce.

But, if you need to train an army or rent one, Xe sure can help. Their site proclaims:

Xe has the ability to develop, test, and manufacture weapons and armor. With some of the most qualified firearm specialists in the world, we are able to gather input from experienced professionals for design of high quality weapons and armor. Our team’s extensive backgrounds in military and law enforcement gives us access to the information we need to produce the best armor and weapons for our customers. 

A ready supply of clothing, protective gear, weapons, and life support needs is located at our Headquarters. This entire stock of equipment is managed by Xe's logistics and procurement division and securely supervised in a designated warehouse. All personnel are properly outfitted for the requirements of the contract before departing the United States for work overseas. Our personnel are properly prepared to meet the needs of its customers.  

Not as sorry as he's going to be

Keddy says he's sorry for referring to unemployed as 'no-good
bastards'
By Alison Auld (CP)
HALIFAX, N.S. — A Nova Scotia Conservative MP who stunned the opposition and advocates for the homeless after referring to the unemployed in Halifax as "no-good bastards" apologized Tuesday for the comments.
In a statement, Gerald Keddy said he did not mean to offend Nova Scotians who are out of work.

I guess it takes one to know one, Mr. Keddy, but people who are soon to live in glass houses might want to watch it with the stone throwing. I'm sure we will hear about this one again come election time and I bet I know who those "no-good bastards" will be voting against.

The Hockey Shtick

THE HOCKEY STICK is the soubriquet for the millenium-long graph that says the globe has gotten dramatically warmer this past century. 

Well, there's a bunch of sober-minded Finns who disagree, and you can check it out at DOTSUB. It's a 29 minute video, with clear English subtitles, plus two of the participants are English-speaking. I realize that skepticism over global warming is politically-incorrect, but, like I care? Knee-jerkers can bite me.

Anyway, it seems that the Gore gang haven't been entirely honest. Check out the video, then, if you feel it might have validity, ask yourself, who gets to make money out of the P-C hysteria? Like Donald Sutherland's character in JFK said, follow the money.

Dear Tom Flanagan,

What exactly do you mean by this?

“But that’s actually another interesting debate or seminar: what’s wrong with child pornography — in the sense that it’s just pictures? But I’m not here to debate that today.”

I hope and pray that this is only some sort of misquote or vile but harmless piece of abstracted intellectualising.


(h/t Dawg)

100 Reasons NOT To Vote For Gordo Ever Again

On BC election night last May, blogger Laila Yuile decided to throw her hat into the ring in her riding of Surrey-Panorama come the next chance we get to throw Gordo's gang out on their sorry asses. This morning she's looking for 100 reader-based reasons and stories why BC can't afford another go-round with this bunch. Here's one from her comments :

Because he doesn’t care about eldery people like me. I am in that care home on tv and my daughter is helping me with this on her laptop. She was laid off two months ago and lives in a small apartment, but I need more help than she can do while she is looking for a new job.
Where will we go? There is no where else to go, and I think his mother would not be proud to have a son who has been so cruel to so many people in need.
Thank you.

Vera.

I don't have a personal story like Vera - yet - so I'm contributing Gordo's Energy Plan - fabricating an 'energy crisis' in BC to be solved by forcing the public utility BC Hydro to buy power at twice the market value from Liberal-stocked independent power producers and then reselling it at a loss to owners of air-conditioners in California .

.

Go. Add your own. Grow that list.

And while you're there, check out the vid on how many riot police it takes to help the Owelympic torch cross the road ...

Inspiration for the Old

OSHKOSH 365 is the site for the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) who promote civil aviation in the US, especially home-built aircraft. Every summer, the Oshkosh fly-in is astounding to see — thousands of home-builts and restored factory fliers.

Well, here's a truly unique home-built. Jim O'Hara, a retired college professor, learned to fly 21 years ago. Six years later, he began construction of a two-thirds-scale P-38. He's now 81 years old and he and his wife made its maiden cross-country trip three weeks ago.

Awesome.

The old order passes

INTRODUCED IN 1935, KODACHROME IS DEAD. Last week, I discovered that Kodak ceased the manufacture of this wonderful film this year, after 75 years, but will support its processing until the end of 2010. Sad, but inevitable, for a number of reasons: in the 1990s, other colour emulsions finally caught up with it for sharpness, and then with the advent of digital photography, the silver era is ending. But as Dan Bayer observes on his site, The Kodachrome Project,

Kodachrome is a very unique film that has played a major roll documenting much of the last century of our world's history. It has encapsulated many important eras preserving them safely in the cradle of its superior archival properties. As a result, Kodachrome's 75 year lifespan will have become an era in its own right; an era deserving of its own preservation effort.

That the film exists at all, is amazing. It was invented by two New York city musicians, Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes.  Like Dan says, Kodachrome is unique:

Kodachrome is fundamentally different from other transparency and negative color films that have dye couplers incorporated into the emulsion layers. Kodachrome is unique because it has no dye couplers in the emulsion; these are introduced during processing.

That makes its processing much more complex, compared to other emulsions, except the Technicolor 3-strip dye transfer process. That's why, except for the U.S. (because of antitrust concerns) Kodachrome was sold with processing included, with a mail-pouch to put the used cassette in to send to the Kodak lab.

So why was it important? Well, it was originally introduced as 16mm movie film, but soon afterward, some bright soul in Kodak authorized its manufacture in 4x5" sheets, for the big view cameras and Speed Graphics used by serious photographers.

When WW2 came along, the U.S. Government put a corps of photographers out in the field to capture America at war — using 4x5 Kodachrome.  To the delight of archivists, as decades passed, it was discovered that if processed Kodachrome transparencies were stored in darkness, there was virtually NO colour degredation, unlike other colour film, which would start to deteriorate rapidly.

And this brings us to SHORPY, a delightful web site that is a compendium of all manner of photographs. They have a great number of these 4x5's to display — and they are awesome. Great saturated colour that is 70 years old, but looks as fresh as today. Anyway, go visit Shorpy for some colorful history.

Notice the subtle, non-fried, non-faded 70 year-old skin tones in the photo below, of workers on lunch break at North American Aviation's Inglewood, California factory: