Trek: War of the Worlds

For a Halloween treat you can listen to many Star Trek actors do War of the Worlds on radio. I am a huge Trek fan, so this should be fun


This Halloween (Saturday, October 31) from 10 pm - midnight on 89.3 KPCC, L.A. Theatre Works will air a sci-fi double bill:

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells was adapted by Howard Koch and stars John de Lancie, Meagan Fay, Jerry Hardin, Gates McFadden, Leonard Nimoy, Daryl Schultz, Armin Shimerman, Brent Spiner, Tom Virtue and Wil Wheaton. Originally performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre of the Air, War of the Worlds is truly the mother of all space invasions, offering a rare combination of chills, thrills and great literature. Join actors from Star Trek and Star Trek:The Next Generation as they recreate this classic radio thriller. The breathless pace and convincing details make it clear why the 1938 broadcast of an "eyewitness report" of an invasion from Mars caused a nationwide panic. Stay tuned after the show for a post-performance interview with Leonard Nimoy.

War of the Worlds& Lost World: hour 1


War of the Worlds&Lost World:hour 2



Here is a post show interview with Leonard Nimoy

Ein Feste Burg ist Unser Gott

Reformation Day 2009

Dennis Miller on...

Afghanistan and more.

BO's Halloween

More from Steve Crowder.

Premier Hudak

That's who'll be the Premier of Ontario in 2011. That's not just me saying that. It will be good news for the long suffering people of Ontario, but it won;t come fast enough.

Here's a New Year's prediction, two months early: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is finished. The denouement will take a couple of years.

When the curtain falls for him it will be swift, brutal and decisive. The resulting lurch to the right, with all the attendant cuts to public services, union unrest and so on, will look very much like Mike Harris, Part Deux. And there is very little now that anyone, least of all the Ontario premier or those around him, can do to prevent it. It's too late.

Extreme? Not really.

When McGuinty came to power on Oct. 23, 2003, he already suffered from the perception that he lacked a certain je ne sais quoi in the spinal area. Indeed, many Ontarians seemed to like him because he lacked spine. He was so nice -- the anti-Harris. At the time, we needed nice. Once in office McGuinty immediately confirmed how nice he was by breaking his solemn promise not to run deficits or raise taxes.

Chicken littles worry about exaggerations

The chicken littles are their own worst enemies. Their hysteria is so easy to debunk. Now some of them are lamenting the chicken little hysteria. It's very funny, but sad.


Sir David King condemns green scaremongering; Herod condemns child abuse; Osama Bin Laden condemns Islamist terrorism; etcProfessor Sir David King – Tony Blair’s former chief scientific advisor and foot-and-mouth massacre guru – has spoken out against climate change alarmism. He has told the Times:
“When people overstate happenings that aren’t necessarily climate change-related, or set up as almost certainties things that are difficult to establish scientifically, it distracts from the science we do understand. The danger is they can be accused of scaremongering. Also, we can all become described as kind of left-wing greens.”
Presumably he is no relation of the Sir David King who claimed in January 2004 in Science magazine that climate change is “the most severe problem we are facing today” and “a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism.” (Hat tip: Benny Peiser)

Lord Monckton and Ambassador Bolton on the threat from Copenhagen

An interesting show exposing the environmentostalinist threat.

R.I.P. Sapper Steven Marshall

I am deeply saddened to read of this news. This is a very heavy price to pay for freedom. My deepest sympathies to the family and friends of this brave soldier. He will never be forgotten. He died for freedom.
"He was eager to get out and make a difference," said Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, the commander of Task Force Kandahar, who described Marshall as "a man of action" who would "be remembered as the life of his section."

"He had an incredible sense of humour and a contagious grin that never left his face, even during the most difficult moments. He would embrace any situation and always found and shared that silver lining with his mates."

The 24-year-old soldier was a combat engineer with the 11th Field Squadron, 1st Combat Engineer Regiment. The unit is attached to the Edmonton-based 1 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group, which only took over from the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment two weeks ago.

Black jacques chirac to be tried

Not only black jacques dog is biting him. French justice threatens to take a bite out of chirac crime.

PARIS — A French judge ordered former President Jacques Chirac to stand trial on embezzlement charges predating his presidency — a case that could mark the first time a former leader of modern France is forced to defend himself in court.

A prosecutor can still appeal the judge's decision to try Chirac for embezzlement and breach of trust in a corruption case dating back to his tenure as mayor of Paris, and if so, the ensuing judicial deliberations could last months.

Still, the judge's bold pursuit of Chirac, who lost his presidential immunity when his 12-year presidency ended in 2007, stunned many observers. Judges chased Chirac unsuccessfully in various corruption scandals for years, and prosecutors had requested that this particular case be dropped.

Many French politicians fretted openly Friday about how the case would affect France's reputation abroad. It's just one of several current scandals alleging dirty dealings in the conservative political establishment that Chirac headed for years.

One of Chirac's former prime ministers, Dominique de Villepin, is on trial, accused of orchestrating a smear campaign against Chirac's successor, Nicolas Sarkozy. Villepin denies the charges.

Tory Fundraising Juggernaut Rolls On

( click on images to enlarge) Info from elections Canada

As I said before last quarters grit fundraising numbers were inflated by the coronation of iffy fees. The grits are way short of their goal of raising $25 million for this year and the Tories are back to out fundraising the grits more than 2.2:1. The NDP is doing a little better this quarter.

I just noticed Stephen beat me too it.

Good News: NP lives to fight another day

I was a bit worried that the NP was going to close down today. Fortunately I was wrong. I am hopeful that the NP will survive the CanWest troubles.

The National Post will be transferred to Canwest's publishing division along with the rest of its newspaper assets following court and lender approval Friday.

The Post, which turned 11 years old this week, will be part of Canwest Limited Partnership (LP), which operates 10 major city dailies, two smaller market dailies, 26 community newspapers and a host of Internet properties across the country. Previously, it was held by Canwest Global Communications Corp's holding company Canwest Media Inc. (CMI), which also has Global Television and a number of specialty channels. CMI remains under creditor protection in order to reorganize its assets and satisfy debtor arrangements.

The Ontario Superior Court approval follows a filing requesting the transfer earlier this week. The move, which closes Monday, ensures a place for the Post within the Canwest newspaper chain. Contrary to some media reports in advance of the hearing, the newspaper is not about to cease publication...

Calgary Grit acknowledges the obvious

Calgary Grit comments on the many recent polls showing Tory ascendancy.

Dan Arnold: Dion walks again
Posted: October 30, 2009, 11:33 AM by NP Editor
The common opinion when looking at opinion polls seems to be that 40 is a magical number where majorities become possible and leads become "commanding". Is this true? Well, it depends on the map, but it certainly does leave a psychological impact.

And the Tories are basically there, which means they're polling higher now than the numbers they got on Election Day one year ago...

OVERALL (change since September in brackets)

CPC 39.5% (+3.0%)
Lib 27.0% (-2.2%)
NDP 15.5% (nc...for the third straight update)
BQ 9.0% (-0.5%)
GP 8.6% (+0.2%)

Carleton Mississippi Mills Conservative EDA 5TH annual Fall Supper.

His Worship Mayor O'Brien and Colleen McBride


HM Minister of State (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) Keith Ashfield and Judy Ashfield

I had the great pleasure of attending the CMMC 5TH Annual Fall Supper. Steve Liakos is President of the EDA and a good friend. The dinner was great with a lot of great guests including Laureen Harper, Mayor O'Brien, of course HM Minister of State and Party Whip Gordon O'Connor , Senator Duffy , HM Minister Keith Ashfield and my friend Shameer Ravji. This is a solidly Tory riding. HM Minister O'Connor won the last election by almost 25000 votes. This EDA helps other poorer EDAs.
Senator Duffy gave another barn burner of a speech. Senator Duffy is very funny. He lambasted our grit opponents. He spoke of the pride he felt in being a Tory and of our long tradition of accomplishment. He had the audience in stitches.
We are so lucky to have Duffy as a Tory senator.

CSIS and the jihadi threat

The new head of CSIS tells it like it is. It is nice to have someone without rose coloured glasses in charge of our intelligence services. I'm sure my friend David Harris is pleased. I was quite worried with the recent charkaoui decision and Mr Fadden confirms my fears were well founded. I can we in the west fight the jihadi threat when there are collaborators in the media and among so called human rights organizations fighting for jihadi rights.


On a related front, Fadden recalled the service’s dilemma in the recent security certificate case of suspected terrorist Adil Charkaoui. A Federal Court this month killed the government’s case against the Montreal man after government lawyers refused to reveal their detailed evidence against him, citing national security concerns.

The disclosure demand, “pushed us beyond what we could accept,” Fadden said. “We were faced with a pretty fundamental dilemma: to disclose information that would have given would-be terrorists a virtual road map to our tradecraft and sources; or to withdraw that information from the case, causing a security certificate to collapse.

Justin the saviour?

I wrote a reply to this letter in the Gazette. As did this guy.

Re: "Justin time to save the Liberals" (Letters, Oct. 28).

I was quite amused to read that one of your readers believes Justin Trudeau is the solution to the Liberals' sinking fortunes. The Liberals have long believed that power is theirs by some divine right and just can't accept that Canadians aren't clamouring for their return.

Their real problem is their party's lack of coherent policies and positions, not a problem that can be fixed by changing the party leader. The Liberals have not used their time in the wilderness to address their dearth of policies.

If Liberal supporters think a pretty new face is the answer, I suspect their time in the wilderness will be a long one. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his party are doing a good job in government and they will continue to do that for the foreseeable future.

Roy Eappen

Montreal

Creepy

iffy just looks creepy and not very funny.( h/t)

Even grits think iggy is iffy

The circling of the toilet bowl continues for iffy. Even grit supporters are falling away.


Yes, yes, we'll get to the horse race momentarily.(Can you even still call it a horse race when one of the horses has wandered off the track entirely, and is now standing by the rail and staring aimlessly into the distance?). But first, we should spend just a moment or two marveling over this week's bonus question, which asks whether any or all of the current crop of federal party leaders should be replaced "as soon as possible."

It's not even all that surprising that Michael Ignatieff would win that particular poll handily, with only 31 percent of respondents saying he should stick around, compared to 46 percent who ready to volunteer to help him pack. But only by going through the data tables, which break down the result by voter intention, can one become truly boggled by the revelation that not even Liberal supporters are all that keen on the guy: Only 55 percent would keep him on as leader -- 26 percent would ditch him for the nearest available alternative in a flash. That's 26 percent of LIBERAL-LEANING VOTERS. Seriously, I've said it once, and I'm sure I'll say it again: Yikes.

Donate to Raphael's Defense Fund

I am saddened that a blogger is suing my friend Raphael Alexander. Dr Dawg should have just emailed Raph and settled their differences. Raph lives on the west coast, that's why he didn't your emails until much later. If you think Raph is some wealthy conservative, think again. Raphael is a construction worker with two little kids and a wife who is a stay at home mom. He is certainly in no position to pay out damages. I urge Dr Dawg to reconsider this course of action. Aren't you just keeping these statements circulating in the blogosphere by suing?
I have donated money for Raph to defend himself against this lawsuit. I urge my readers to visit Rapahael's site and donate money as well.

Driving danny crazy

This should make danny's head explode. Hydro Quebec has bought New Brunswick Hydro. It will modernize their system and have access to their American markets. This completely cuts off danny's fiefdom from getting more US exports and isolates the Churchill developments . He needs to sell power through Quebec. I heard Jean lapierre this morning on CJAD and he expects a lot of litigation and whining from Danny. danny also lost a recent byelection. I also here HM Government will not intervene , after all it is a private dela.

Quebec and New Brunswick have reached a proposed deal that would see Hydro-Québec buy the majority of NB Power's assets for $10 billion.

New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham and Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced the historic deal in Fredericton on Thursday, concluding a week of speculation.

The deal is contingent on legislative approval in New Brunswick.

It stipulates that Hydro-Québec would take over the majority of New Brunswick's generating stations for $4.8 billion, which represents the equivalent of NB Power's debt.

Hydro-Québec would freeze residential power rates in New Brunswick for five years. During the same time period, large industrial rates would be lowered to the power prices offered to the same customers in Quebec but they would not be frozen. That component of the deal is worth an estimated $5 billion.

"Taxpayers and ratepayers are the big winners today. NB Power's $4.8-billion debt will no longer be a risk for our future generations," Graham said in a prepared statement.

Shame on you carolyn bennett 2

My friend Jamie Wilson sent me a copy of this despicable flyer. He lives in Northern Manitoba and is disgusted with this. It arrived at his home on the day H1N1 shots started.vSo the flyer has gone out. The shots are being given out quite efficiently he tells.
It is pretty horrible that this flyer has gone out. The grits should mail out an apology to everyone who got it.. Resign ms bennett, you have no business being health critic.

By the way I urge my readers to go get their flu shot if you can or at least talk to your doctor about it.

President Bush and I

I have a photo without the other guy this time.

Shame on you carolyn bennett

I live in carolyn bennett's riding in Toronto. She is ( was?) a family doctor. The first rule of medicine is first do no harm. She decided to try and milk a controversy so that her pathetic sinking grit ship could score a few points, while scaring some vulnerable people. The grits used her professional credentials to try and add gravitas to this pamphlet. Her actions are truly despicable. This should not be a partisan issue. People's lives are in jeopardy and this woman feels making this is a good time to play politics. She should resign. She is apologizing now because the people she tried to scare, called her out. She does not really seem very sorry. I expected better from a colleague. You have been in politics far too long ms. bennett,

>Evans said he was offended by the pamphlet, which includes photos of the body bags and a crying child, because it was politicizing an issue he thought should be non-partisan.

He also said that after Health Canada issued its report the community had wanted to move forward and felt this was raising the issue needlessly all over again.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, whose name is on the pamphlet, apologized for causing offence.

"I wish you had called me first," Bennett said to Evans quietly after his turn at committee was up.

With friends like these...

Bo doesn't need enemies. Watch this train wreck of an interview. The war on Fox news is not going well for the bo whitehouse.

Senior White House adviser and Obama crony Valerie Jarrett gave an interview to CNN in which she rapidly backtracked on the required administration line that Fox News is biased. When Brown asked whether she also thought that MSNBC (which is every bit as liberal as Fox is conservative) was biased she just crumbled.

Within the space of a minute, Jarrett said of Fox that “of course they’re biased”, then that “I don’t want to just generalise all Fox is biased” (sorry, but you just did – eight seconds ago) before finally settling on the preposterous “we’re actually calling everybody out”. That’s, er, calling out “everybody” whose name is made up of two words, second word news, first word beginning with F and ending in X.

In the middle of all this patent nonsense, Jarrett blurted out the truly bizarre notion that “what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power”. Poor plucky little Barack Obama, United States commander-in-chief and leader of the Free World taking on Goliath. They may still act as if the election campaign is still on but it might be a good idea for Jarrett and Co to reflect that they are power.

R.I.P Lt. Justin Boyes

Another brave young hero has been killed. My deepest sympathies to his friends and family. We will not forget the scarofocs you and he have made for freedom.


Boyes was 10 days into his second tour in Afghanistan. He had served here earlier as a reservist with the North Saskatchewan Regiment but chose to join the fulltime army last year. He is survived by his wife, Alana, a three-year-old son, James, his parents, David and Angela, as well as a sister who lives in Britain and a brother who serves with another Patricia's battalion in Shilo, Man.

"Justin was a dedicated family man and spent every possible moment with his wife and son," Brig.-Gen. Jon Vance, commander of all Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said. "Growing up in Saskatchewan, he was an easy-going prairie boy with preferred sitting around the backyard with his good friends, his family and a cold drink."

Only a few days earlier, Lt. Boyes had spoken of how happy he was to be in Afghanistan again and how eager he was to get out into the field after six months of training for his mentoring mission back home, a young officer who knew him said Wednesday.

HM PM Harper to visit India and China

I am glad that HM PM will be visiting the land of my birth and China. I think doubling trade and encourageing free trade with India would be an excellent idea. I am less sure about trade with the chinese commies. Unlike pseudo chretien and his ilk, I don't think selling one's soul for trade with the chinese commies is a good idea. China must be engaged , but human rights issues must certainly be addressed.


Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced plans to visit two of the world's emerging economic superpowers — China and India — for the first time this fall.

Harper will travel to India — where Canada recently opened new trade offices in Hyderabad, Calcutta and Ahmedabad — from Nov. 16 to 18 after meeting APEC leaders in Singapore, his office said in a statement released Wednesday in Ottawa.

International Trade Minister Stockwell Day says Canada hopes to double bilateral trade with India — which currently stands at about $4.5 billion — by 2014.

“We share a history of cooperation in the Commonwealth and the United Nations, as well as a shared commitment to pluralism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law," Harper said in a statement.

"Our goal is to build a stronger, more dynamic partnership based on shared commercial, political and regional interests.”

Strange bedfellows.

Ontario is among the grits' last bastions. Things are not going very well for iffy in Ontario. Chantal Hebert notes how Tory friendly the provincial grits have become. as the numbers rise in Ontario I predict the Tory numbers will also improve. Quebecers are fickle but they will vote for a winner. Wonder if catsmeat will take a chainsaw to the provincial grits and make sure their dreams don't come true. In any case Tim Hudak will defeat mcliar et al in the not so distant future. I doubt Tim will be any friendlier to iffy.

Then as now two unlikely partners found it to their mutual advantage to get along. Their association also turned then-Tory leader Joe Clark into the odd man out of Canada's most electorally potent federal-provincial equation.

So far, the productive peace that has broken out between Queen's Park and Ottawa since last year's federal election is the feature that most distinguishes Harper's second mandate from his first. It is not an accident that the widening gap in voting intentions that separates the second-place Liberals from the leading Conservatives is based on a growing Harper advantage in Ontario.

Nadeem Ismail in Montreal

Nadeem Ismail Dr Chaouilli

The Fraser had a policy briefing with Economist Nadeem Ismail. He makes a great case for free market solutions which are already the norm in most European countries in health care. You watch some videos of Nadeem Ismail here. The head of the FMSQ Dr Gaeten Barette was also there as was Dr Chaouilli. Esmail gave a lot of data proving his point that changes are desperately need for our failing health care system. I hope Nadeem comes back to Montreal frequently. I hope our politicians will begin to listen to these rational voices.

Videos:Race, Religion, Equality and Freedom: Current Canadian Legal Controversies Canadian Constitution Foundation Third Annual Law Conference

Here is the video from the third annual CCF law conference i attended in October. The hrc panel is the second video. You can watch Professor Moon yell at me.
The other panels were also very interesting. Particularly the panel on race and equality and the final panel on religion and the public square. I thought Jonathan Kay made an excellent case against affirmative action. Kay agrees with me that if we are to do something it should be done at the very earliest levels of schooling not at university level.
George Jonas was amazing, though because of the restrictions of his job Supreme Court Justice Lebel not so much. Thanks to my friends at the CCF for the conference and the videos.

I have know Barbara Kay for quite a while and it was great to see her again, but I finally got to meet Jonathan Kay from the National Post. It was also nice to finally meet George Jonas, a true champion of liberty. To my astonishment he actually knew who I was. Jonas understand the problems of the hrcs from the beginning. We should have listened to him

Is there a human right to be free from offence?
Debating the restrictions on free speech in human rights legislation

Speakers:
Philippe Dufresne, Canadian Human Rights Commission
Grant Huscroft, University of Western Ontario
Richard Moon, University of Windsor

Panel Two: Copyright whose rights?
What should be the appropriate balance between the rights of creators, intermediaries and users?

Speakers:
Howard Knopf, Macera & Jarzyna
Richard Owens, Stikeman Elliot LLP









Keynote Address: Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louis LeBel Topic: The Ethics of Judicial Unpredictability

Topic: Racial equality, aboriginal rights, and Section 15: examining R. v. Kapp
Should differential treatment based on race, ethnicity or ancestry be an expression of equality? Would equality be better served by treating individuals as equal before the law, regardless of the individual's race, ethnicity or ancestry?

Speakers:
Dwight Newman, University of Saskatchewan;
Bryan Finlay, Weir Foulds LLP;
Craig Jones, Office of the Attorney General, British Columbia;
Jonathan Kay, National Post

Keynote Speech by George Jonas. Speech read by CCF Executive Director, John Carpay, with Q&A with George Jonas to follow.


Panel V – The place of religion in the public square: examining Christian Horizons
Iain Benson, Senior Associate Counsel, Miller Thomson LLP, Toronto
Alvin Esau, University of Manitoba, Faculty of Law
Andrew Lokan, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP, Toronto

Pity?

I find it hard to get very teary eyed about this. How non partisan were these people? Why must it always be government funded?


Social policy think-tank to close its doors


BY KATHRYN MAY, THE OTTAWA CITIZENOCTOBER 27, 2009COMMENTS (2)


OTTAWA — One of Canada’s leading social policy think-tanks is closing its doors because lack of funding.

The well-respected Canadian Policy Research Networks announced on its website Monday that it plans to close at year-end, ending 15 years of independent public policy research and evidence gathering to support Canada’s decision and policy-making.

MSO: MUSSORGSKY'S PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

I attended another great MS concert recently. The first work was not familiar to me, but I very much enjoyed the Mozart Piano concerto played by Mari Kodamo ( wife of Kent Nagano, the principal conductor of the MSO( reminds me of Dutoit and Argerich, though I hope this marriage lasts much longer)). She played beautifully.
The Mussorgsky was amazing. It is a favourite of mine and the MSO did it great justice. The finale was breathtaking. The audience gave the concert several standing ovations.


BERNHARD KLEE, conductor
MARI KODAMA, piano

SCHNITTKE Symphonie No. 7
MOZART, Piano Concerto No. 27
MUSSORGSKY, Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)
The genius composer Maurice Ravel was often inspired by masterworks of thepast. He was much taken with Baroque music and was a great admirer of Mozart. His striking orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a series of musical interpretations of paintings, was one of his biggest successes. Pianist Mari Kodama brings her artistic refinement to Mozart’s last concerto, a work of sophistication and elegance.

Dan Cook on...

the new iffy order.


Tuesday evening: "Just trying to get a note out to staff. There is no news. No resignation(s). No new chief of staff." — Jill Fairbrother, Mr. Ignatieff's communications director

Tuesday evening: "I am pleased to announce the arrival of Peter Donolo, who has accepted the role of Chief of Staff." — Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff




More music from Joanne. More hilarity from Chucker. So why doean't iffy hire back coderre? iffy has basically admitted everything coderre said was true.

Get the H1N1 Vaccine

I will soon be getting the vaccination against H1N1. I am telling my patients and my family and friends to get the vaccine. I know of at least 2 deaths among quite young people from the H1N1 virus. I think the vaccination conspiracy theorists are wrong. I don't think hysteria is necessary, but I think the population should be told about the potential danger. So far the mortality rates have been low around 0.5%, but there have been many ICU admissions and the flu is affecting much younger people. So for your own good get a flu shot!

More Zaniness from lord stern

The chicken littles get ever more hysterical as their sham is being exposed. I wonder if stern is a begetarion. I doubt it. I'm also sure he hasn't given up limos or flying aroung the world giving his vapid chicken little comments. Most credible economists have fully refuted his report. I don't think these drama queens are having much effect anymore.

There must be some sort of global competition at the moment to see who can come up with the most ridiculous dire warning about the effects of climate change. Up until today Kofi Annan, Al Gore, Ban Ki-Moon and Gordon Brown were all leading contenders. Former Secretary General Annan claims that 300,000 people a year are being killed by climate change. Ban and Brown think we have just months to secure the future of our planet, and Gore believes in torturing us with disaster movies dressed up as documentaries.

They’re all blown away however by the latest apocalyptic vision from Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford, New Labour climate change guru, LSE professor and former Chief Economist at the World Bank. According to Stern, if the world doesn’t’ change its ways a crisis “will come to us incredibly fast” and the scale of the risk is huge:

“We have not seen those sort of conditions for 30million years. These kind of changes will have huge consequences — southern Europe is likely to be a desert; hundreds of millions of people will have to move. There will be severe global conflict.”

Working for Fox News

Apparently the BO whitehouse is working hard to increase Fox Ratings. You couldn't buy such advertising and its working Fox numbers are way up. Good work bo.


Gee, do you think Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch love being The White House's least-favorite news channel? Duh, of course they do.

Here's a chart comparing network ratings from the period 9/28/2009-10/11/09, which is when Anita Dunn slammed the network, and the two weeks after that ("post feud"). The numbers on the bottom right of this chart show the sequential gain for all demos (+9%( and the 25-54 year old demo (+14%).

Today's hearings

You can watch lynch, freiman, dufresne (who said nothing) farber and Prof Moon here. Just click view this clip.

Ezra Levant,one of the great champions of free speech and fierce critic of the thought police in Canada, live blogged the whole thing.
I must admit I found lynch pretty infuriating. She was defending the indefensible and doing it quite badly. I was impressed that even most of the opposition mps understood that she was evasive and not very helpful. The testimony of Canada's official Representatives of the Jewish community was equally unhelpful. I am glad professor Moon did make a pretty good case for abolishing section 13.1 without too many attacks on "right wing bloggers"(even minor ones) like me.
I would like to see the notes from lynch's investigations of warman and her staff. I suspect that was an outright lie. That the Tories hired this woman is not something that anyone should take pride in. The defenders of the thought police are not doing much for its survival.It is time for HM Government to act and get rid of section 13. 1
More from Natasha, BCF and more on Moon from the great Mark Steyn.
The fact that we are even having these hearings mean that freedom of speech is winning. Godd news for Canada.

an accurate assessment of trudeau

It must warm the hearts of all you trudeau lovers, that trudeau took advice from margot kidder. That his "peace initiative" was just an attempt to keep another lover in his bed. Lord Moran was quite right about this arrogant commie playboy.

In his final telegram home before leaving Ottawa, British High Commissioner Lord Moran observed about Pierre Trudeau:

“With some reason, he has not been greatly respected or trusted in London. He has never entirely shaken off his past as a well-to-do hippie and draft dodger. His views on East/West relations have been particularly suspect.”

Perhaps Lord Moran had Mr. Trudeau’s "peace initiative" in mind when he wrote these words. Indeed, the most damning assessment of that initiative — until now — was that of our former ambassador to Moscow under Mr. Trudeau, Robert Ford, who famously observed that Canada lacked the power to effect change in either East or West.

According to a CP report by Joan Bryden, the second volume of John English’s biography of Mr. Trudeau, which will be in book stores tomorrow, may explain Lord Moran’s harsh judgment of our former prime minister:

“When Trudeau approved testing of cruise missiles over Canadian territory in 1983, one of his paramours at that time - Margot Kidder, an actress and peace activist - took it upon herself to persuade him to reconsider.

Watch the supporters of the thought police

Today the standing commiyyee on Justice will hear from the other side. jennifer lynch( head censor), philip dufresne ( chief council of the hrc), mark freiman ( ex censor, new President CJC) and bernie farber ( ???). Prof Moon will also be on hand to ask for the abolition of section 13.1, while still somehow being supportive of the lynch mob. Should be interesting. The circus is set to start at 3:30 PM. I will not be in attendance.

Watch here. More from my friendBCF

dem race huckster al sharpton...

... strikes out yet again. Not really surprising. Why does anyone pay attention to this race huckster?

A troubled young woman whom the Rev. Al Sharpton championed as a victim of a horrific, racially motivated sexual assault now says she fabricated the incident -- despite the fact that all of her alleged attackers pleaded guilty and are serving jail time.

Megan Williams, who is black, wasn't kidnapped and tortured in a West Virginia trailer at the hands of white attackers -- but lied because she wanted to get back at a boyfriend who'd beaten her, her lawyer, Byron Potts, said.

"She told me the only thing not self-inflicted were the bruises on her face," he said at a news conference.


"She is recanting the entire incident. She says it did not happen, and she's scared."

When her allegations went public in 2007, Sharpton rallied to her side and pressed authorities to indict the accused attackers for hate crimes, even as local NAACP leaders urged restraint.

Who cares about climate change?

Apparently not many Canadians. I hope this is true as well.


THUNDER BAY - Yesterday was the International Day of Action on Climate Change. In Ottawa, cold weather kept the crowd from hitting the 5,000 people that organizers hoped. About 500 people showed up. In Calgary, a snowstorm dumped wet heavy snow on the city. On Google, unlike past climate change events, there was not a special logo created. On the front pages of major newspapers across Canada the major stories were not about the looming climate crisis.

In Winnipeg, about 200 people made it to a rally at the Manitoba Legislature. In Vancouver, a city steeped in protest, the crowd was estimated at 5000. Across Canada interest in the day of action appeared less than ever.

Could it be that the fire is smoldering out on the issue of climate change? Maybe in an era where ever shorter attention spans want to shift to other topics the climate issue has had its "ten minutes of fame"?

Good Bye Soupy

He made a lot of people laugh. May he Rest in Peace.


DETROIT — Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, has died. He was 83.

Sales died at Thursday night at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, New York, said his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher. Sales had many health problems and entered the hospice last week, Usher said.

At the peak of his fame in the 1950s and '60s, Sales was one of the best-known faces in the nation, Usher said.

grits against iffy

The new BT blog Moose and Squirrel has found a great grits against iffy video. Good work Natasha.

Iffy in freefall

Things just keep getting worse for dionII( iffy). It looks like dion was the better choice.
It also shows the grits should have had a real leadership race. Their coronation of iffy was a bad idea.

The Ipsos Reid poll suggests that, last week, the Liberals would have done even worse, with just 25% of support among all Canadians.

Meanwhile, the governing Conservatives, despite coming under fire last week with accusations of partisan spending of economic stimulus money, have opened up the kind of lead that often points to majority governments.

Ipsos found 40% of survey respondents said they would vote Conservative. But while 40% is usually good enough for a majority -- Jean Chretien won a majority with 37% in 1997 -- Bricker said the Conservative vote tends to be "inefficient," that is, it's concentrated in provinces like Alberta where, even if their support shot up to 100%, it would not translate into more seats and a majority.

Montreal election

I am so disgusted by Montreal election that I will probably not vote. I haven't done this in many many years. I always vote. The corruption charges were the final straw. Tremblay is arrogant and incompetent, harel is a separatist who doesn't even pretend to speak English. The third candidate is a 9/11 truther. Then all the corruption allegations. What a choice.

Robert Wagner, long-time mayor of New York City, was a politician's politician. He had a formula for tight situations. As revealed by his son at his funeral in 1991, it went: "When in danger, ponder. When in trouble, delegate. When in doubt, mumble." Magnificent. It worked well enough to give Bob Wagner 11 years in office in New York. Might the same approach commend itself to our own mayor of Montreal, the beleaguered Gérald Tremblay? Perhaps not. Bombs labelled corruption, crime, Mafia and dirty money have exploded beneath the mayor's feet with such force that the delay-and-mumble approach no longer works its magic. All that's left might be Wagner's final political throw: When things were truly desperate, he would run for re-election on a reform ticket - against his own previous administration.

Get Well Soon Lord Lloyd Webber

I have seen every musical Lord Lloyd Webber has ever written. I saw one just recently. Since the cancer was caught very early I have no doubt that His Lordship will be fully cured and back to work very soon. He has brought immense enjoyment to many people, which I have little doubt he will continue to do. God Bless Lord Lloyd Webber.

The cancer is thought to be in its "very early stages", doctors believe.
Lord Lloyd-Webber, 61, has enjoyed spectacular success in the West End and on Broadway, with musicals hits such as The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Starlight Express.
A statement issued by his spokesman said: "Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The condition is in its very early stages.
"Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year."
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men in Britain, with 35,000 being diagnosed in the country annually, most being over 50 years of age.

bo's war on Fox News

bo's war on Fox makes him look small and pathetic. If anything it will increase Fox news ratings, which are alreadt very high. Why is he wasting political capital on looking like a censor. Should President Bush have done this to NBC? Congratulations to the other networks for not backing down to the bo bullies. Charles Krauthammer has a good perspective.










O'Reilly on the liberal msm sticking up for FOX News

Another non scandal

This is the latest silliness from the grit msm. It seems they are annoyed that HM PM Harper watches American News. Really? That's terrible. HM PM Harper doesn't want to watch Canada's talking heads bash him? How shocking.

The self-absorption of the Canadian info-tainment industry never ceases to amaze its loyal subjects.
The Canadian Press wire service reported with astonishment the other day that Prime Minister Stephen Harper steers clear of Canadian TV news.
Horror of horrors! Even his cabinet ministers were aghast at such heresy, according to the story carried at the top of Page 2 of Friday's Free Press.
After all, how can a leader of the free world function without the advice of Peter Mansbridge and Lloyd Robertson?
More to the point, if he has been skipping the nightly news on Canadian TV the last while, Harper is woefully uninformed about the antics of the Balloon Boy's publicity-seeking father and the death photos of that international diplomat Anna Nicole Smith.

Salim Mansur on Waziristan

The Pakistanis finally seem to seriously want to defeat the jihadis in this no man's land. Let's hope they can catch osama, mullah omar and destroy their networks.


For most Canadians, and Westerners in general, Waziristan means very little. It is a place so remote that it bears no reference to the their daily concerns.

But the Pakistan military's offensive begun last week in South Waziristan to flush out Taliban warriors and allies in their ranks from the Middle East and Central Asia, should bring people in the West to pay closer attention to such distant places and what happens there.

Waziristan is remote, its people destitute and backward by any measure of human development index. It is mostly inaccessible surrounded by high mountains of the Hindu Kush, and it straddles the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The area through history has provided sanctuary to those fleeing the long arms of law, and since 9/11 given refuge to al-Qaida-Taliban members including Osama bin Laden and his number two, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Through the past eight years Pakistan's military has hesitated to breach the sanctuary, and hunt and kill the masterminds of global jihad.

Apart from the fact that the military is not trained sufficiently in counter-insurgency warfare, the fear has been the spill over of an effective Waziristan campaign might bring Taliban to wage an indiscriminate campaign of suicide bombings and firefights in the urban centres of the country.

The Boys in the Photograph

I went to see the Mirvish production of The Boys in the Photograph. It is a collaboration between Ben Elton and Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber. It is an updated version of the musical The Beautiful Game. I went to a pre play chat that explained the story of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It also explained the meeting between Ben Elton and Lord Lloyd Webber that resulted in the musical.
The Musical is the story of a winning soccer team in Catholic Belfast and the fate of these "boys". It shows both sides in the troubles as pretty thuggish. The play is pretty explicit in its denunciation of terrorism. Its ending is much more hopeful than the original play. The acting was great and the music very good. It is a much more scaled down musical compared to Phantom ( Phantom II has just been announced). The play still had many dark moments and leaves you saddened by the waste of lives. It was a very solid musical , but still leaves you with a feeling of sadness and hope. Not everyone liked the play.

Marc Morano and Ann McElhinney...

at the Accuracy in media conference. You can see the video at 1 hour 59 minutes ( Intro at 1 hour 55 minutes. He gives a great talk on climate realism and the many new polls that say Americans are losing their kyorto religion.
You can also see Not Evil Just Wrong's producer Ann McElhinney at 2 hrs 14 minutes.

dishonour crime

Another attempted dishonour killing. Silence from the usual suspects. It is truly unbelievable that this man ever loved his kid. Parents are supposed to love kids unconditionally. This man saw his kid as little more than property. If convicted, I hope he rots in prison for many years to come. ( h/t)

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butcher mugabe continues his thuggery

I was not very optomistic about the deal between the MDC and the butcher. Seems it has pretty much broken down. The butcher
will not step down, but he is not immortal. The people will dance on his grave when he dies. The butcher is the face of pure evil.
President Zuma would do well to arrange the butcher's downfall.


Zimbabwe police 'raid MDC office'


Morgan Tsvangirai has temporarily pulled out of the ruling coalition
Police in Zimbabwe have raided a house belonging to PM Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party, saying they were searching for weapons, a top party official says.
Tendai Biti, the MDC's secretary-general, said that more than 50 officers "ransacked every room" of the house on Friday night.
Mr Biti said they took "valuable party material" from a room occupied by the organising secretary, Morgan Komichi.
Last week, Mr Tsvangirai suspended MDC participation in the unity government.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accuses President Robert Mugabe of oppressing political opponents and failing to implement last year's unity deal.
But President Mugabe has described the split as a "non-event", and said his party will not bow to pressure.

Steve Crowder

The pelosi nightmare continues

Anne Coulter...

... on bo's fight with Fox News.

Rock and Roll

I recently attended the Can Stage production of Tom Stoppard's play Rock and Roll. I saw the original west end version of this play in 2006. Tom Stoppard understands the evil of communism. He is of Czech origin. The play traces the fall of communism through the rock and to songs of the time. The play starts with the Prague spring of 1968 and takes us through until 1990 At its premier Mick Jagger and Vaclav Havel attended. It is fascinating to watch the characters develop over time. One of the characters is an old commie Cambridge don, who refuses to see that the workers paradise is actually a version of hell. The Canstage version is very well done. The acting excellent. This version used video screens to allow for fairly minimalist sets. The music is one of the characters and will bring back many memories. It will soon be 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall Nov 9, 2009> So this is a good play to commerate the fall of this wicked godless sytem that murdered and enslaved hundreds of millions of people. Let us celebrate freedom and the fall of this monstrous ideology. Masaybe bo needs to see this play.

HM Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Jason Kenney at McGill

I was invited to an event with HM Minister of Citizen and Immigration held by friends at Conservative McGill. It was held in a beautiful room in the arts building. It was nice seeing many old friends including my liberal friends Zach Paikin, the son of one of my med school classmates and friends Alex Meterissian, Luca Manfredi, Rebecca Katz and many others. Unfortunately more people couldn't attend the meeting becuase of nasty anarchist protesters outside. One these protesters apparently ripped down the Conservative McGill sign and it was destroyed . Jason is always amused by such protests. Apparently I understand jaggi singh was outside. I wonder if he has moved out of his mom's house yet. There were maybe 30 protesters. Jason spoke to all the students and welcomed everyone of every political stripe. He spoke about the Tory vsison of multiculturalism which is to become Canadians, but keep what is best from your own culture at your own expense. No more grit vote buying. Jason spoke about the fact that the Tories were an inclusive tent. The Tories want to bridge the differences between groups. He gave the example of a mentoring program between Jewish professionals and Somali youth.
Jason answered several qusetions. I learned that Jason was a grit as a lad and had worked for Ralph Goodale. He now knows better.

He answered questions about Darfur, George Galloway and refugees. He was asked why George Galloway was prevented from entering Canada. He replied that Galloway had been told by CBSA as a preliminary investigation( in London) that his support of terrorist organization hamas would make him ineleigble for entry into Canada. Galloway had the opportunity to appeal or go to the Canadaian border for a final decision and he never did.
The anarchist mad a lot of noise outside the room and were finally cleared out after security and the police arrived. Peaceful assembly dopes not include destruction of property.
I congratulate the Conservative McGill club and its President Jess Weiser for hosting this event. I will pay for another banner to replace the one destroyed by the anarchist rabble. I congratulate HM Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Jason Kenney for his great work for Canada!

Ezra in Montreal

I had a very busy day yesterday. President Bush at lunch and Ezra Levant at dinner.
Ezra was in town yesterday talking at the
Ezra gave an impassioned plea for freedom of speech and gave the history of the hrc thought police in Canada. He also discussed jihadi lawfare and the hrcs. He gave credit to his many supporters in helping survive the hrc and warman onslaught.
It was an enthusiastic and supportive crowd. I have heard Ezra speak about these issue many times, but I am always struck by his passion and the injustice that he fights against. It was obvious from the questions that Ezra has many Montreal fans who understand the Tyranny of Nice..
Dinner was great. The Ferreira has great food and the conversation was fascinating and lively. Barbara Kay joined us for dinner.
We also discussed Ezra's new book , which will be about the Alberta Oilsands. Its sounds like another bestseller.

Catsmeat has another...

... senior grit politician to demolish and destroy his dream: George Smithermen. Another grit attempt at a non scandal bites the dust.




But George Smitherman, Ontario's deputy premier and his government's infrastructure minister, said statistical analyses that have made that case are based on incomplete data and that the Liberal government in his province sees no evidence that federal Conservatives are directing stimulus funding for political gain.

"I think overall when we see how all the infrastructure dollars that are stimulus related have been allocated, I am pretty confident that there is going to be a very, very equitable regional distribution," Smitherman told reporters at Queen's Park.

Be it Resolved Major Reductions in Carbon Emissions are not Worth The Money

An interesting debate on the resolution Major Reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money.( Of course I am in favour of the motion, but I would go one step further and say the premise that there is man made global warming is incorrect). This took place on NPR! Particularly watch segment 2( Bjorn Lomborg) and 4 (Peter Huber) 6 (Philip Stott) I think as more people hear these arguments the hysteria will be calmed. The yes side in this debate changed more minds than the no side.