The 2008 Summer Vacation Thread

Well, its that time of year again [pay raise? -ed], the time of year that your humble correspondant takes a well-deserved three week vacation. Naturally, my extended absence will mean that I'm unable to provide you with the level of advanced and in depth correspondance you have all come to expect. In the interim, I will do the same thing I did last time I went on a holiday, and provide you with an open thread for all wild comments, and a couple of good starting points to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Sikh Male loses helmet appeal
   How about an easy and simple legislative solution that eliminates the problem and restores freedom of religion:
   Non Christians are prohibited from wearing safety equipment while biking or bicycling or rollerblading. (Or working construction)
   
   
2. Let the Western Bastards freeze in the dark? Not quite the same ring...
   
   
3. Calgary Police Association says "the public has to know that nobody -- not even a police officer -- is above the law."
   Edmonton Police say "er, hold on, that doesn't include us does it? No? Okay, good"
   
   
4. Or, how about pictures of hot chicks?
   
   
   
   
   
   

I don't wish to impose any restrictions here (partly because I won't be around to delete offending messages [what am I, chopped liver? Oh, wait, I'm taking a Mai Tai break of my own at Hawreluk Park -ed]) but its a free-for-all in the comments, so enjoy.

Maybe its just me, but....

When I saw this story, my first thought was geezers on giant hamster treadwheels...

Spend $1.5 million to make $750,000?

The CBC is reporting that sodomite fiddler Ashley MacIssac is auctioning off "half of his future revenue".

As I imply in the title to this post, I have a feeling that Ashley MacIssac's "future revenue" may not be worth more than $3 million. I have an odd feeling that the only revenue you'll get half of is the money you've paid him yourself.

Distributing naked pictures of children gets you... in no trouble at all?

From the "wierd Aussie" file:

A magazine has reignited a debate on art in Australia after an image of a naked girl appeared on its cover.

Art Monthly Australia published the photo, in which the six-year-old's body is mostly obscured by her legs, along with two other nude images of her in its July edition.

It comes only months after a photo exhibition showing naked youths by renowned Australian artist Bill Henson was shut down by police in Sydney.

Banging their heads against a brick wall on Jasper (with pictures)

Police say the crime rates on Jasper Avenue aren't worse than anywhere else in the city. But, they are still setting up three surveillance cameras to remind revelers to take it easy.

Bar owners along the strip say they like the idea. The cameras, going up along Jasper between 108th and 109th Streets, will be there during a three-month trial period.

“Police presence is going to help, and cameras are going to help,” says Mike Sainchuk, “Our security also helps. We’re trying to be proactive to keep problems minimal.”

Large signs are in place to let people know they are being watched.

Okay, now take a look at these links:

Officers were called to a drug store near 117 Street and 104 Avenue yesterday afternoon, where a man had been acting strangely. He would stand near female customers, put a cell phone on his foot, and snap a quick picture between their legs with the phone before moving away. He was arrested without incident.

It's what skeptics have suspected all along, and now it's official: Cameras don't catch crooks. Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville, head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office of Scotland Yard, told a conference in London, England, this week that the project of plastering the city with closed-circuit TV cameras (CCTV) has been "a fiasco."

So naturally we're going to try this out on Jasper Avenue. Because hey, its important to look like something's being done.

EPS Officers get away with murder Assault with a Weapon

Two senior police officers who assaulted an irate homeowner while arresting a fugitive in his house without a warrant were given conditional discharges yesterday.

That means if the pair, Staff Sgt. Jamie Ewatski and Staff Sgt. John Fiorilli, successfully complete 60 hours of community service during six months of probation, they will earn an absolute discharge and not get a criminal record.

Yet again we see corrupt Edmonton Police officers getting away with actions which other people would be locked up for. The two pigs burst into the home of an innocent electrician a few years back with no warrant, and when he tried to keep the cops outside they attacked and pepper sprayed him.

Provincial court Judge Vaughn Myers accepted the men were exemplary police officers and good citizens, but said something must be given back to the community because they had unlawfully invaded a private residence.

Myers noted "there would have been an uproar" if it had been the home of a police officer, a defence lawyer, a prosecutor, a court clerk or a judge involved.

"The moment the court treats the home of an electrician with any less sanctity is the day justice has left the building," said Myers.

If these two freaks of nature are "exemplary police officers" than I sure as hell don't want to meet any below average ones! Judge Myers has the case all backwards though: there would have been no uproar if police had burst into the home of a defence lawyer [though police seem to be allowed to taser and arrest lawyers at will. -ed], but there sure would be hell if some electrician burst into somebody's home and beat the guy up. Make no mistake about it, this is precisely what happened in this case.

And yet again, two guilty men, two corrupt Edmonton Police officers, two scumbag pigs, are getting away with it.

What the FARC is she thinking?

The recently freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has urged an end to the Colombian government's "vocabulary of hate" against her former captors.

Okay, this isn't something that really snuck up on us: the Norrmalmstorg robbery was thirty-five years ago this August. Regardless, watching a captor's cause be mirrored in the mouth of a recent victim, and a politician no less, is always a little worrying.

On the other hand, Betancourt was already more than a little loopy. As the founder of the "Green Oxygen Party she was in favour of "an ecological conscience, social justice, participative democracy, non violence resolutions, human sustainability and respect for diversity" in Colombian politics. In other words, just another Marxist -- albeit one who didn't hang around in hills kidnapping folk.

One thing I can say about a right-winger captured by Marxist guerillas: I cannot guarantee no psychological transferance, but after the ordeal it is highly unlikely that they will decide that writing a play is a reasonable course of action after release.

Ms Betancourt has become a celebrity in France, and is due to receive a Legion of Honour medal from President Nicolas Sarkozy next week.

She has said that she plans to write a play about her experience of being held hostage by the left-wing rebels.

In a surprise development, the English alphabet tends to start with "A"

This article about Bell and Telus' plan to start charging us for incoming texts is fairly good, with perhaps one paragraph really ruining it:

A text message sent via mobile phone can be no more than 160 characters, and each character is about a byte. If 45 million text messages are sent throughout Canada every day and each message is about 100 characters, this totals 4.5 gigabytes. This amounts to about the same amount of gigabytes required to download two or three high-resolution movies from the Internet.

About a byte, eh? Are there a whole lot of 9-bit characters floating around out there?

It's a shame really, because the article goes on to make several good points (not just the 'two or three downloaded movies' bit). For instance, how about the revelation that even with Bell/Telus only charging $0.10 per outgoing text (currently $0.15), the resultant per-byte fee ends up being some 5 times higher than what NASA pays to transmit data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Bonus conservative take on the text message fees: Lorne Gunter had a creepy yet technologically provided quiet ride home with a van full of teenaged girls.

The death of BC model Diana Gabrielle O'Brien

What part of this story doesn't sound suspicious?

The website of the Jh Model Agency in Shanghai, which was not accessible on Tuesday, had featured a photo and the name of Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy, whose New York agency said the picture was likely being used without permission

But working in China wasn't the star-studded dream O'Brien thought it would be. And only about two weeks into her three-month contract with Jh Model Agency, O'Brien was found dead, possibly the victim of a botched break-and-enter.

Days before her suspected murder, O'Brien complained to her friends about the type of assignments she was getting in Shanghai. Many models here are hired for club and restaurant openings or product launches, where their job is to decorate the scene.

It's not unusual for them to be sent to dancing jobs as well - the type of work O'Brien was doing for the Chinese agency, friends said. She was told to dance in long, flowing robes, said friend Melanie Callas.

"It wasn't provocative. She could dance however she wanted, but it was sort of odd," said Callas.

O'Brien was getting homesick, and had decided to return to Canada on July 24 or 25. She wanted to be back in Saltspring Island at the home she shared with her boyfriend.

The day before her death, O'Brien was assigned to work in Kunming, Yunnan, a city near the Chinese border with Vietnam. She was to stay over the weekend. She left her apartment Saturday, but didn't make it out of Shanghai.

On Tuesday, the website of the Jh Model Agency was not accessible. Earlier, however, the site featured pictures of dozens of Chinese and international models, calling the company one of China's top agencies.

There was no answer Tuesday at either of the phone numbers listed for the Chinese agency, and a visit to the rundown building where the modelling agency was supposed to be located proved puzzling. A young man who answered the door said he was a wedding photographer who had moved in a month ago, adding he knew nothing about a modelling agency.

But his neighbours in the down-market building told a different story. They said four people worked out of the office and that it was, in fact, a modelling agency. One neighbour said she rode in the elevator just last week with two Western models.

A second address listed for the modelling agency, an office at another rundown apartment complex, was closed and nobody answered the bell.

Something here just reeks of creepy. Why did the website shut down before police discovered her body? Why were they able to vacate the offices so quickly? How much of a coincidence is it that she tried to break her contract and suddenly turned up dead? And how much of a coincidence is it that Chinese authorities were able to find an 18 year old man so quickly after taking two days to officially begin the investigation? Any way you shake it, this doesn't make sense.

Anyways, as I did the last time we discussed a murdered model, here are some of the photos that have been broadcast so far:

All hail the abortionists

With the National Post irrationally debating whether an important matter of public policy can be declared off-limits to an entire gender, I thought it a good time to more publically address Amanda, who stated the following in my previous post on the Morgentaller Order of Canada decision:

First off he didn't get the award for performing abortions, he received it for his part in making the government acknowledge a women's right to choose what they want to do with their bodies and lives!! For you to dictate to anyone else what they should do or believe makes you in the wrong! If you personally don't believe in abortions fine! Don't practice it!!!

I already addressed the first bit: to wit, in an abortion the woman is snuffing out the baby's life, not hers. Which is why I am completely unflummoxed by the threat of "back alley abortions". After all, if a woman dies in the course of committing a regular murder we don't get all weepy eyed over her, so why should we be upset that a woman went into a back alley, successfully murdered her own baby with a coat hanger, and then later died of hemmoraging?

Anyways, as for the part I do plan to address uniquely here, there is a side of the abortion debate that gets ignored. The men who want abortions but their bitchy cows of an ex-girlfriend refuse to get them. How do people like Amanda find it justified to force men to pay child support for a baby that they have already tried to get offed? Now seeing that women seem to get to decide to have an abortion whether the man wants one or not (even if, say, he agrees to care for the child himself and/or put it up for adoption himself), can we at least ammend the law so that if the man is willing to abort the child, and the woman refuses, that he is not required to pay a dime in child support? After all, if the man personally does believe in abortions, should he not get the chance to not pay child support for 18 years?

Anyways, I started the post off by saying "all hail the abortionists" and I meant it. I think its time that, media darlings aside, we pay attention to some other important abortionists in Canada. This man here, like Morgentaler, believed in the parental right to chose, was derided and hated for his beliefs, and even thrown in prison. So let's all raise our glasses [you too Amanda, sweetheart, this one's for you! -ed] and toast another proud Canadian supporter of abortions!

That useless son of a bitch Dion

GP Conservative compares Toronto's smog with Grande Prairie's to look at who really needs to be taxed.

Dion was in Edmonton today complaining about Alberta, while the socialist morons in the crowd delighted in listening to a man denigrate thems. What kind of self-hating people are these, anyways?

(Bonus aside courtesy a friend via IM: notice how it looks like the poster says "Fucking U.S."? Think that was even remotely accidental?)

GP Conservative argues thus, and none too senselessly:

Perhaps instead we should tax Ontario a hundred million bucks for every loss of life due to smog and distribute it to Albertans via tax cuts.

I was thinking today that, had I been available this afternoon, a protest in front of this stupid conference would have been the way to go. Letting Dion know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't welcome in this province would be wonderful. But it was raining, so I didn't go. I'll discuss this in a future post (why the rain stopped me, not Dion).

One year ago today

As I discussed on July 7th of last year, I had a new laptop to play with, and wasn't blogging much.

Yesterday, to celebrate the first year of my laptop, it started booting to a black screen with a moveable cursor. Safe Mode, Recent Good Boot, and Recovery Manager all fail to resolve the situation.

Naturally, HP's Warranty is good for precisely one year. Which expired just three days before the laptop blew up.

The regressive Old Democrats strike again

Layton hoping for Alberta `breakthrough' with Ray Martin as a candidate

CALGARY _ Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton says he's thrilled that long-time Alberta New Democrat Ray Martin has agreed to seek the candidacy for the national party in the riding of Edmonton East.

Martin served as the Alberta NDP leader for eight years in the late 1980s to early 1990s. He then returned to provincial politics to represent an east-Edmonton riding for four years until he was defeated in March when the Conservatives roared back to power with 72 seats.

Layton says Martin is well respected and known as a man with a lot of integrity. Federal New Democrats say they hope Martin will help launch `a breakthrough' for them in the province, where all federal seats are currently held by the Conservatives.

The NDP nomination meeting for Edmonton East is expected in September. (The Canadian Press, ccg)

You know, for the side of the ideological fence that always insults conservatives for being "regressive" because we don't believe poofters should be allowed to (adopt/marry/parade/exist) or we haven't "progressively" enough decided to side with the Taliban in the House of Commons, the socialists are the most "regressive" folks around.

They yet again are ressurecting the walking carcass which is Ray Martin to "revitalize" their efforts, much in the same way they keep hanging onto Marxist theory long after its discrediting. They continue to attack 19th century economic conditions (that may not have existed), and (this is the kicker) they continue to attack traditional conservative family morality as it applied to a campy fictional television show (or worse, a santized television version of a popular radio program).

The obvious reason Edmonton lost the fight for Hossa

Just look at his girlfriend. Don't you think that when she heard "Edmonton" nightmares of being Lauren Pronger the Second bounced around endlessly in her head?

How else do you explain Hossa turning down $1.6 million per year?

(crossposted to North of 49 Hockey)

Eat like Coulter

Now you too can enjoy conservatively-minded English Cut Beef Short Ribs.

(h/t... er... Ann)

The Order of Canada -- Bonus points for murder!

Nauseating Glop and Pail editorials like this one aside, can't we at least admit that if we're giving Morgantaler the Order of Canada, we should at least give it to one or two of these guys.

A maximum-security prison in Edmonton is under lockdown after a fight in the recreation yard Tuesday left seven inmates with stab wounds and one with a gunshot wound.

About 40 inmates were refusing to leave the yard Tuesday evening and corrections officers were negotiating with them, the Edmonton Journal reported.

The incident is said to have involved rival gangs. Seven inmates were stabbed by fellow prisoners and one was shot by a guard.

Smart and Smarter

Smart: Using wikipedia to learn the answers to your company's "Canada Day Quiz".

Smarter: Editing the wikipedia page after learning the answer to change the answer to the wrong answer.