Hey Sis

Happy Birthday!

All the news that they see fit to print

It looks like I’m not the only one fed up with Don Martin and the rest of the crybaby Ottawa Press Gallery who continually whine that the prime minister is “not playing fair”:

So, rather than reporting the news fairly and accurately, the president of the Ottawa Press Gallery seems to be advocating that the media selectively report, thereby attempting to shape the opinons of the nation, rather than do what they are supposed to do, inform the nation and allow us to form our own opinions.

This concept is coming from the guy the OPG chose to represent them — Instead of just sucking it up and giving us the news, he’d rather the press gallery ‘push back,’ and it would seem as Kinsella notes, they’ll use ‘omission’ as a tactic.

I think that the self-anointed guardians of information at the OPG ought to explain what they mean when they threaten to “push back”.

Could it be? Freddy T from Tennessee?

Fred Thompson has announced his intent to run for the Republican ticket.

Good.

The flack against Lord Black out of whack

Mark Steyn living large in Chicago:

After three months of this case, I’m heartily sick of the entire apparatus of high-priced experts, auditors, lawyers and regulators that attach themselves to every itsy-bitsy routine business transaction like boils on a plague victim. Three hundred per hour here, eight hundred per hour there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money, and certainly a lot more real money than the defendants are charged with “stealing” in this case.

For a smallish company with revenues of $50 million to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley paperwork costs $2 million – or four per cent of revenues. The non-competes at issue in this case add up to $60 million on deals worth over $3 billion – or two per cent. The government soaking up four per cent in paperwork is “good corporate governance”, entrepreneurs getting two per cent of boffo deals is “corporate kleptocracy”. This math is not sustainable over the long run. The balance between the energy and creativity in American business and the vast regulatory hordes feasting off them is out of whack.

There must be a certificate program for “experts” at Mount Royal College in which I could enroll.

Creepy Boots

My old high school chum is going away for a lo-o-ong while:

Daniel Sylvester is guilty of the second-degree murder of his next-door neighbour, Alicia Ross, an Ontario jury ruled Tuesday after less than four hours of deliberations.

The conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

Watch your ass in the Big House, Boots.

No idea

For the life of me…I can’t come up with an explanation as to why some torture pics make headlines in German media and others don’t…

Any ideas??

Today’s Horoscope: Be wary of ignorance disguised as cynicism disguised as intellectual skepticism

Not content to merely lambast Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa, and God alone, Christopher Hitchens aims his iconoclastic sonic blaster at yet a new foe — Your Daily Horoscope:

Who does not know how to laugh at the credulity of those who fall for this ancient hoax? And why would it matter, except that religion, too, believes that the cosmos was created with us in mind, that our lives are supervised by an almighty force that priests and rabbis and imams can interpret, and that – by way of doctrines such as “original sin” – our natures have been largely determined when we are still in the womb or the cradle.

Credulity, in the sense of simple-mindedness, is often praised by those who claim to admire the “simple faith” of the devout. But the problem with credulity is that it constitutes an open invitation to the unscrupulous, who will take advantage of those who are prepared to believe things without evidence. This is why, for so many of us, the notion of anything being “faith-based” is a criticism rather than a recommendation.

A work colleague often stops by the office to ask for yesterday’s paper so he can check to see whether if his horoscope came true or not. Of course, my friend does not put his entire faith into such a rigorous scientific philosophy but there is a method to his madness. As with all faiths, he exercises his natural human instinct to search for something more than what is merely self-evident, thus satisfying some bizarre internal instinct within his own psyche.

As Hitchens shows, the argument against religion (or other faith-based practices) often revolves around the idea that the practitioner is “simple-minded” and ignorant of the ways and means of the happenings of the universe. In other words, a person who displays faith in the unknown is not a skeptic, while a person who denies the faith is the rightful bearer of such a term.

It does not occur to Hitchens, however, that a religious person could also be a skeptic, even more so than a atheistic cynic such as himself. Whereas the secular humanist puts his faith in the possibilities of Man and his science, the skeptical asks, “Is there more to it than this?” People of faith often talk of “seeking Truth”, of using logic and reason to conclude that as the more we know of the world, even more is still beyond our comprehension. Quotha Socrates: “All I know is that I know nothing.” Hardly a man hindered with simple-mindedness.

Of course, there are those who wish to exploit the natural religious fervor inherit in most people, and there are even more who willing comply to the wishes of the former. It is with these people that Hitchens takes issue, and to a degree he has a point. Instances of the abuse of religion and superstition for the purpose of greed, envy or power are legion; However, the benefits which have been the result of the same are near-infinite. Unfortunately, most of these benefits are either ignored or unnoticed.

For example, it is easy to take note of a religious fanatic who willingly kills to satisfy his own faith, but how many examples abound where a life is saved by way of religion? Whole wars are instigated and prolonged because of leaders who exploit religious differences, but Western civilization– the greatest the world has ever experienced in terms of power, health and social justice–had been fostered under the protection of the Cross.

Hitch is well within his rights to pronounce upon the evils of organized religion, and there are indeed many. However, by doing so without acknowledging the benefits of such and such a religion is nothing more than displaying the same sort of ignorance with which he bases his own criticism.

And that, dear reader, is simply .. simple-minded.

Quitter

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

It’s up to you now.

Let’s hope Sheehan is more capable of keeping her word than other self-righteous blowhards who opted for early retirement.

Mine’s “bitchin’”

What’s your personality type?

Through the Looking Glass

Bar bans heteros, lesbos:

In Australian hotel popular with gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals and lesbians, officials and the owner said Monday.

The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP.

“The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable,” McFeely said.

We will now pause as civil rights group battle against this blatant act of discrimination.

“When large numbers of heterosexuals or even lesbians are in the hotel that changes the atmosphere and many gay men can feel uncomfortable.”

The landmark decision by a civil tribunal gives the establishment — which does not offer accommodation — the right to refuse entry to people considered a threat to the safety and comfort of its patrons.

In other news, civil rights groups sic their lawyers to battle against this blatant act of discrimination.