Quebecor 2nd Qtr: Profits Sucked Less Than They Thought-- But Sun TV Didn't Help

Lots of stories out re Quebecor's 2nd quarter results.  Short version: their profits were down, but not as much as they could have been.  Interesting to know how the pluses and minuses within the company were distributed, however:

The media and cable company said growth in wireless subscribers more than compensated second-quarter losses in cable....

Yeah: Cable--meaning (among other things) Sun TV, meaning (among other things) Ezra--was a drag on the business. 

Now there's been some play about this story where Sun Media claims that Ezra beat out some CTV reruns in the ratings game, for the first time in history, apparently.  But even if true, to brag about outdrawing a news loop is pathetic.

 If you want to know the real state of Sun TV, dig this:

Yeah.  Its Dr. Ho, the shoe insert guy, advertising on Ezra's show at about the 8 minute mark.  Not a 30 second spot either: over two minutes of this guy telling you how he can stop your feet from smelling.

When Dr. Ho is the the only guy buying ads on you TV station, it ain't making any money.  (Though there is apparently also a guy that paints himself silver and flogs junk jewellery, but I haven't seen him appear yet).

Maybe We'll Read about It Tomorrow

Found on Bourque.  Who knows?  Maybe the poor guy in cuffs caught Mr. Harper on the john.  He's sensitive that way.

Rob Granatstein Out At T.O. Sun

Was he not pro-Ford enough?

Did he object to Sun Media pulling out of the Ontario Press Council, where he sat as a member?

Toronto Sun Sacks More Staff

Word is one, possibly two, major Toronto Sun players were pink-slipped today.

TSF tipsters say once confirmed, the departure of one high-profile 333 vet will be a shocker.

We are trying for confirmation.

I can't wait to hear who. 

Its all part of Kory Teneycke's "flight to crap" strategy.  Betcha The Ez gets a pay hike.

 Although WK is entertaining enough.  My wife has seen this guy over the years.

PS.  Sounds like its this guy (David Ellis) at least.

Some Politicians Should Stay Off Social Media

I think Giorgio Mammoliti may be starting to realize this.

Guess The Government CAN Create Jobs

 Tough on Crime = 6,000 more positions within Corrections Canada since 2006.  (Of course, the figure is from Brian Lilley, whose math skills are known to be somewhat limited)

Shaidle's Hubby Still Getting Sued

Arnie Lemaire, of  Imaginit Technologies, is still in trouble with Richard Warman:

Latest – Warman v. Arnie Lemaire (aka Blazingcatfur and husband of Kathy Shaidle). In December of 2010, this libel action was moved into simplified proceedings with a maximum claim of $50,000 in total damages. A pre-trial conference date has now been set in February, 2012 at Ottawa.

Arnie attributed the Cools Post to Warman.  But it wasn't Warman, and now Arnie must pay (eventually) for the lies he spread.

Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Piss

 Drought-Stricken Texas Town  faces choice between conserving water or drinking own waste products, chooses to drink own waste products.   The American spirit is strong in these ones.  Not that I should really be making light.  When you're facing the kind of extreme conditions that the American South has been up against, well, you know urine deep trouble.  Bah Hah!

Sorry Texas.

Why Sun Media Quit The Ontario Press Council

Some speculation from John Miller (several weeks old, but not reported elsewhere as far as I know):

Sun Media's stated reasons for pulling out are as misleading and full of holes as some of its breezy tabloid news stories. I'm told the breaking point came earlier this month when Sun executives showed up bristling with anger at a press council hearing into a complaint from the Canadian Labour Congress about this story written by Brian Lilley, its chief parliamentary correspondent.

Yup.  If its not Brian Lilley getting them  into Dutch, its Ezra.  And it its not Ezra its Krista Erickson. 

Actually, its pretty much all of them, but for Akin.

Tim Hudak Gets The Wedge

Ontario Libs always seem to fight a little harder than their Federal counterparts.

A Poll That Means Nothing

The honeymoon may be over, but they still have a majority in the HOC, and one soft poll this early in their term won't do a thing to impede whatever legislative action they choose to take.  Excuse me for not cheering. 

Acarpolypse Now: The Real Asian Menace!

 LORAIN -- A man kayaking out on Lake Erie spotted what he thinks was an Asian Carp jumping near his boat.

Webber describes the fish as about four feet long, 50 lbs and silver in color.

He was in the area of the Lorain lighthouse in shallow vegetated water when he saw it.

In all the years he's been on the lake, he says he's never seen an Asian Carp.

"It's a pretty big deal," Webber said.

Asian Carp appearing in one of the Great Lakes is indeed a "pretty big deal".  They are the ultimate invasive species.  They don't look like us.  They don't think like us.  Obviously, because they're fish.  But they don't even look or think like indigenous fish, which we have studied and understand and are therefore capable of slaughtering in great numbers, and so have rendered pretty docile.  These suckers are like fish terrorists.   They can eat anything and breed like foreigners. Furthermore, they can crawl across land, leap long distances, and eat children, which might be OK if they stopped at the bad kids, but they are usually not so discerning.

(Note: I have not been able to confirm the content of this last link).

Seriously!  Its bad shit!  The end times are coming, and I'm just hoping they resemble one of those bush parties from back in my high-school days.

PS. More evidence of  the Asian invasion!

PPS.  Looks like Mark Steyn got it right about the decline of civilisation, although he got the causes wrong.  I don't think he mentions Carp even once, or any kind of fish.  With him it seems to be Muslims Muslims Muslims, 24/7.  But to prove all this I would have to read one of his books.

On That Samara and the Writer’s Trust of Canada Contest

...to anoint the best Canadian political book of the past 25 years, which wound up anointing Ezra Levant's Shakedown.  Discussions of the significance of this choice, such as the one John Geddes attempts  here, are pointless.  The contest winner was determined by an on-line poll, and the poll got Freeped.  Tory forums directed readers to the contest website, and true believers who never read the book voted for it 10 times.  Word later went out that the contest organizers were approaching progressive blogs to popularize the contest and hopefully scare up anti-Ezra voters, and indeed I received an email from them about a week before the contest deadline.

Which I promptly ignored.  You organize a contest in this manner, this is the kind of result you deserve.  Eat it, Samara.

PS. Here's an account of the contest  that mentions the Levant Vs. Vigna lawsuit.

The NDP Mole

 A Liberal that's fled for greener pastures, maybe?  Anyone know what Herle's up to these days?

Further Notes In Advance Of The Economic Apocalypse

Just a quick note and I'm off to Walmart to stock up on canned items.  Lucky for me, TD (my financial institution) has such shitty service its actually impossible to have a "run" on the bank. 

Anyway:

1) Never point the shotgun at your own foot.

2) All the half-decent savage deities require blood (preferably the blood of virgins, but pretty hard to come by in T.O. these days unless a comic book convention is in town).

3) As mentioned previously, you can always eat your leather belt.  Doesn't matter what brand; they all taste awful.

4) And when it comes down to it, eat the old first.  The young, though far tastier, are supposed to be our future.  You can always eat them later.

PS. This is actually a crap report, but previous reports have been so crap that it looks good in comparison.  I think you need about double to even keep up with population growth.

Invest In Leather

 ...because you can always boil your leather gear for its nutritional value, and I predict that by next year such considerations will be top-of -mind for most people.

Valley Park Middle School Update: Canadian Hindu Advocacy Vows More Protests!

 And their leader, Ron Banerjee, doesn't care whose prayers get interrupted:

“We’ll picket in front of the school when they begin praying. Let’s see how much praying they can do with our loudspeakers and hundreds of people there. We want to make it clear we don’t approve of prayer and gender apartheid inside the school. If our loudness disrupts their prayers, then so be it.”

Firstly, since Banerjee managed to scare up all of a single elderly hindi at the last protest, I question his noise making abilities (although not his ability to blow smoke).  Secondly, you would think that, whatever your opinion of the school's attempts at religious accommodation, actually disrupting the prayers of 10 year old kids would be considered dirty pool.  But Ron Banerjeee doesn't think that, because Ron Banerjee is a dick.

On a more civilized note:

The Toronto wing of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) issued a statement supporting the accommodation of Muslim prayers. “School space for prayer on a voluntary, extra-curricular basis, is included in the principle of religious accommodation which Ontario school boards are required to honour under Ministry of Education guidelines,” CIJA stated. “Reasonable religious accommodation, which is enshrined in human rights legislation across the country, benefits all faith communities, including the Jewish community. The absence of reasonable religious accommodation would negatively affect Jewish students and those of other faiths. School boards should closely monitor religious accommodation activities taking place on their property and all such activities should be consistent with the values of the board.”

Expanding on that position, Howard English, vice-president of the Greater Toronto region of CIJA, said reasonable religious accommodation “benefits the Jewish community tremendously. It allows for absences on religious holidays and for voluntary extra-curricular Jewish heritage programs in schools as well.”

However, English added the TDSB “has the responsibility to monitor any kind of extra-curricular activities.” He suggested that it might require having an Arabic-speaker observe the prayers.

I am told the CIJA is what the now defunct CJC has become.  Nice to see that the new org. has some of the same progressive tendencies as the old.

Saint Turmel

The new talking points: she joined  all those Que. separatist groups to draw them into the Cdn. mainstream.  Not a bad alibi, actually: like joining the Hell's Angels so as to bring them to Jesus. 

We'll see how it works.

Enlightenment Is Less Than 48 Hours Away!

As Imp notes, it will take the form of a T.O. bloggers get-together at 6:30 tomorrow night at a West End Pub with, I am informed, a humongous patio. 

There, all your questions shall be answered, and all that is wrong put right.

No, I will not be buying drinks.

For location, email me at bigcitylib@hotmail.com.

So, My Little NDP Brothers: Official Opposition Is Harder Than You Thought! HUH? HUH?

 Here's the official talking points from the NDP website.  And they're not all wrong.  Connections are rife between the Harper government and Quebec separatists, as they are between the Harper government and Tamil Militants.  Nevertheless, when the NDP picked Nycole Turmel they bolted a squeaky wheel to their party machine, which is now getting greased. 

You are not 3rd party anymore, folks.  Amateur hour is supposed to be over.

In Which I Get All Literary

While waiting for a discerning agent/publisher to pick up one of my many, many novel-length manuscripts, I thought I would shop around some old short stories to various Lit Mags.  Lo and behold, yesterday evening I find that a new start-up,  Indigo Rising U.K., has accepted Harold Of The Rocks, which I wrote several years ago.  It's on the website, and hopefully will make their first print edition. 

Harold of the Rocks

Echo Mountain

On Wednesday, June 14th, 1994, I accompanied Roy, Sandra, and Harold Medaugh on a trip to one of their big resort properties, this one onPotashLake inNorthern Ontario. I was there in my capacity as nurse to Harold, the oldest Medaugh brother, who was schizophrenic and could not be left unattended. About fifty miles East of the complex, our Cessna developed engine problems and plunged into the Wabakimi Forest. Harold and I, some tinned food, and not much else came out of the flaming wreck, and even I came out damaged, having sprained an ankle and broken two fingers.

(word count: 5,000 approx)
Warning: Don't read it after dark!

Charles Monnett And The Polar Bears

Back in 2006, US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Enforcement and Regulation biologist Charles Monnett published a brief paper in which he described a number of drowned polar bears spotted during an aerial marine-mammals survey. This observation was the first of its kind: nobody had ever seen floating corpses of Ursus maritimus before, apparently.

Although scientists had already concluded that polar bears would have difficulty in an ice-free arctic, and might be more prone to drowning as they attempted to access the disappearing ice-platforms they needed for hunting, Dr. Monnett's observations added a nice little exclamation point to this conclusion. 

Since about February of this year, however, Mr. Monnett has been the subject of an "integrity inquiry" by the U.S. government, and the deniosphere has gone wild with the notion that this inquiry might be related to the '06 paper, and might therefore cast doubt on that paper.  Well, as was previously implied here, it is not and does not.  More precisely:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: The US government suspended an Arctic biologist over how he awarded a polar bear research project to the University of Alberta and its management, not for his earlier scientific work detailing drowned polar bears, a watchdog group said Monday.

Now, as some have noted previously, this whole investigation has the stench of a witch-hunt about it: the Bureau hands out drilling permits, after all, and Dr. Monnett's paper did not make them happy.  Furthermore, the transcript of Mr. Monnett's original interrogation contains page after page of questions related to his work on polar bears and, frankly, the investigators come off as barely numerate and aggressively stupid.  Monnett's notes and computer were seized afterwards, and it is fair to suggest that new grounds were found for his suspension from these sources after the old grounds did not pan out.

Craig Chandler Goes Liberal!

 There's this story in the G&M, so you know it isn't a joke.  Nevertheless, the email from Craig Chandler at the PGIB (Progressive Group for Independent Business) wants you to know:

Craig Chandler, the "don't move to Alta. if you ain't conservative", proto-Western separatist guy, wants PGIB members to take a good look at "dark horse" candidate for leader of the Alberta Liberal Party Bill Harvey.  Not as weird as it sounds.  From what I know about Alberta politics, everyone involved joins the Tories, just because they always win, and then moonlights for the party they really support.  Indeed, Chandler's bunch has been involved in the leadership selection process for both the Wildrose Alliance and provincial Conservative Party, in both cases throwing in with the candidate too crazy to win.  So maybe this in itself tells you something about Bill Harvey.  However, here's a bit more from the email:
 
Bill Harvey is a long time PGIB member and his views are Classical Liberal in flavour or as what we refer to in the modern day as small 'c' conservative. Bill Harvey's policies of less government, lower taxes and political accountability are of the fiscally responsible Laurence Decore era. His view on eliminating Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Commission show that he values freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Bill Harvey's policies on putting Alberta first with an Alberta Provincial Police force, controlling our own immigration to his promotion of a Triple E Senate and defense of our oil & gas industry show that he will be a defender of the west.
 
What is also refreshing about Bill Harvey is that he is NOT a federal Liberal! How anyone could be supporter of a party that is the enemy of this province is beyond me?
 
The Alberta Liberal Party has opened up the leadership race to all Albertans and you do NOT, I repeat do NOT have to become a member to vote in this race.

A lesson in the dangers of openness for the LPoC, I suppose, as they consider how to go about choosing their new leader.  Although the federal party seems much less easily subject to takeover as its Alberta equivalent, which has always seemed the very definition of futility.

PS. Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Code (not section 3 of the Commission) is the hate-speech provision.  Chandler's a buddy of Stephen  Boission, whose troubles with section 3 due to gay-bashing have made much news in recent years.  Good luck Mr. Harvey, with these guys in your corner you will need it.

Ezra On The Jewish Defense League

 Frankly, the JDL is pretty much one guy, Meir Weinstein...

You don't really have to read the rest.

Did Horwath Step Into Toronto School/Mosque Debate?

 Actually, given her earlier statement here, I think not.  But some guy up in Orangeville is on about the Islamist menace and yada yada yada and says:

“Timid” Tim Hudak’s response to the ‘discovery’ of public school mosque-activity is entirely lacking, totally inadequate for someone seeking to become premier of Ontario, which position has direct responsibility and oversight for the totality of Ontario’s publicly funded education system. He has, effectively, stated that this “is a local school board issue.” This response is a cop-out. Obviously, politically, Mr. Hudak is mindful of “Gentleman” John Tory’s electoral chances (and silver opportunity) crashing and burning in 2007, in large part over the issue of school choice. But, this Islamification of the conventional school day is entirely different and most certainly not merely a local school board issue. It is the thickening edge of a wedge. Only Ms. Horwath, of the provincial NDP, has come out openly against school hour, in-school and in-cafeteria Islamic prayer hours in our shared public schools, ground-zero of neutral Canadian citizenship.

[...]

It may take Ms. Horwath, to stand up for Ontarians now and to say, “Enough is enough”, and that all the slights and put-downs toward females, and the wrongs done them taken together, cannot make even one right.

Did Andrea Horwath change her position 180 degrees, or can we put this down to the ramblings of a small-town opinionizer? 

But while we're on the topic of Valley Park School, its important to distinguish two levels of  concern with the school's actions.  One is: has the school successfully navigated its way through the various legal issues (accommodation vs. gender equity) in arranging these prayer services?  The 2nd is: whatever the legalities, is the school doing the right thing  by inviting an Imam onto school property to lead prayers on Friday afternoons?

Because, despite the MCC's threat of legal action, the answer to the first question is almost certainly "yes".  Or at least, the TDSB is as lawyered up as anyone, and it would be astounding if this decision wasn't scoped out from a dozen different angles by their legal people.

I also think that the answer to the 2nd question is a qualified "yes", but to prove it I would have to discuss the female menstrual cycle, and this would probably make me gag.

Macleans Sinks To New Low

...publishes Ron Banerjee, one half of the infamous Canadian Hindu Advocacy.  Kenneth Whyte, you must be so proud.

Ouch

Crap GDP numbers for May make the Bank of Canada's 2nd Quarter 1.5 per cent growth figure very difficult to achieve.  Crap numbers from the US, and the antics of tea-partiers in Congress, make more crap numbers likely in the near future, suggest that any "re-acceleration" of growth in the second half of 2011 is going to be pretty subdued. 

You know, in politics, timing is everything.  Whose idea was it to call an election when things were looking good for the gov., rather than waiting for the economy to soften and then blast them for that every day?

Headline Of The Day

Error or no, this header "sings" to me.

Good News

 ...because in Alberta the Tories are the lesser crazy.

Alan Lake Weighs In

The Money-man behind the English Defense League denies that he is Breivik's "English Mentor":

I do not know this man, I have never met him, and I am not his mentor.

So now both of the men who have named as Anders Behring Breivik's possible  U.K connection have denied knowing him.

And Around And Around We Go: Just Who Is Breivik's English Connection?

While English Defense League co-founder Paul "Lionheart" Ray first fingered EDL money bags Alan Lake, another of the racist gang's leaders, Tommy Robinson, (buddy of JDL chieftain Meir Weinstein and the Shaidles) insists that, no, it was indeed Paul Ray that ushered the Norwegian Mass Murderer into The Knights Templar.  And now, weirdly enough, Ray is suggesting that maybe he was Breivik's role model, though he still claims to never have met the man.  All very confusing, but presumably the nice police officers investigating the various interactions of far right players in this case will be able to sort it out.

PS. Yesterday I was getting a ton traffic via Facebook from the UK to my original post on the topic.  I think folks within the EDL were using it as evidence of the Ray=Breivik=English Mentor connection.

Farber On Healthcare, Redux

Back a week or so, CJC head and provincial Liberal Party candidate for Thornhill Bernie Farber penned a column for Shalom Life in which he was critical of Ontario's health-care system circa the Mike Harris Gov.  He used as an example the treatment his sister-in-law received when dealing with breast cancer back in 2001.  This triggered a response in the article's comments section by a fellow named Michael Robitaille--none other than the woman's husband--who essentially accused Bernie of exploiting her illness and eventual death for political gain.  And that was followed by an Op-Ed piece by the T.O. Sun's Christina Blizzard which echoed Robitaille's complaints. 

In the latest installment of this back and forth, today's Sun letters section brings us a response to Blizzard's column that defends Mr. Farber:

Re “Farber fables?” (July 24): Christina Blizzard comments on Bernie Farber’s recent piece in Shalom Life where he referenced the sad passing of his sister-in-law, Joanne. Blizzard reports Joanne’s widower took issue with Bernie’s view on Joanne’s care during her illness. I knew Joanne during this time — she was a colleague and a friend. Without going into details, let me be clear it was Joanne’s parents, sister’s family and friends who cared for her during the last nine months of her life. Her parents left their home in Ottawa to care for Joanne. The health care she received was outstanding, there is really no disagreement on this point. But it was not integrated — different elements were provided at different hospitals by different teams, and little was available by way of home care. We wished there were more services for Joanne to ease her pain and make her journey smoother. Let’s get back to the real debate — the state of health care in Ontario.

Brenda Spiegler

UK Media Explore Possible Paul "Lionheart" Ray/ Ander Breivik Connection

 ...and that's good.  I've been banging away at the possibility-- that EDL leader Paul Ray might be the Norwegian killer's "English Mentor"-- for days now.  There's no mention of the "crusading Canuck" blogger who fed everyone the relevant links, but that's OK I guess.  At least Allah knows.

In any case, Paul Ray has denied any connection on his  "Lionheart" blog, suggesting that English Defense League financier Alan Lake is most likely the "Richard" named in Breivik's manuscript.

On the other hand, this fellow (who has followed the UK extremist scene for years) thinks neither Ray or Lake fit the bill, and speculates that "Richard" may be fictitious.  Which is just as likely.

Meet Canadian Hindu Advocacy

Yeah, that's both of them right there.  Bannerjee to the left and, presumably, Naresh Patel to the right.  And you can tell its all of them because when the interviewer, at about the 1:30 mark, challenges Bannerjee to scare up another Hindu from the crowd, he can't.

They are, incidentally, protesting the prayer sessions offered each Friday at Valley Park Middle School for their Muslim students.  Most of the media outlets put the crowd at about 50.  You can see the JDL's Meir Weinstein briefly, I think, looking dapper in a black suit.

EDL Co-Founder Paul Ray Denies Being Anders Breivik's "English Mentor", Names Names

Mr. Day objects to my speculation, and offers some of his own:

Ive been perplexed about this all day due to how serious the nature of being linked to a political mass murderer is (it’s no small thing), and now the penny has finally dropped on who the most likely person is, who ‘Richard’ the English mentor of Anders Breivik is.

Click through link for big reveal. 

Actually, this matter has taken on a degree of seriousness, now that there is talk of "other cells" and even attacks on London.  But I can't find a link for that now, so trust me.

Breivik's English Helper?

So here is some semi-informed speculation. In his manifesto, mass murderer Anders Brievik refers to his connections to members of the pan-European Far Right, in particular this weird group called "The Knight's Templar",  He says:

 I had or have a relatively close relationship with at least one of them, an Englishman, who became my mentor. He was the one who first described the “perfect knight” and had written the initial fundament for this compendium. I was asked, not only once but twice, by my mentor; let’s call him Richard, to write a second edition of...

So who is this English "perfect knight" named Richard?  The UK papers are wondering. Well Richard=Richard The Lionheart (see the manifesto through the link), and Richard the Lionheart = "The Perfect Knight".

Now, there's this crackpot English blogger, who has in past years tried to dodge hate-speech charges in the UK by fleeing to South Carolina, and whose real name is Paul Ray.  He's with the English Defense League, and he blogs under the name of Lionheart.  Here's a shot of him:

Note the dummy with the emblem of the Templars on its shirt.  Not the other dummy.

Again, this is hardly conclusive, but I'm not the only one whose thought of it either.

Soon, In Canada, You Won't Have To Register Norwegian Mass Murderer's Weapon Of Choice

 Details here.  Unfortunately, too many people will think this is good news.

The Mystery of Michael Coren

I too am puzzled by Michael Coren's latest blog post on the shootings in Norway.  He doesn't quite say that those kids on that island deserved what they got for their insufficient zealotry in support of Israel.  He merely refers to a "tragic irony".  There may be some irony in the notion of a Conservative Christian so convinced that Muslims are barbarians unfit for Norwegian society that he was willing to kill nearly 100 people (mostly non-Muslim, presumably) to prove his point. 

Maybe I'm just not seeing that irony.

In any case, the most charitable explanation for Mr. Coren's post is that he was drunk or on crack at the time.  Just as likely, but more sinister, is the possibility that he was floating a few trial balloons in advance of his new show on Sun TV.  After all, Lilley and Levant pretty have the explicit muzzie bashing end of things covered...but nobody is directing Teh Hate at Nordic Social Democrats.  Maybe Mr. Coren sees a niche that is thus far unoccupied.

Also, Colby Cosh's attempt to change the subject is pretty wormy.
Also, Anders Brehing Breivik apparently bragged of his links to the English Defense League.  Maybe Meir and the Shaidle's will arrange a meet and greet.  Maybe he' already left comments on their blogs at one time or another.

And maybe, just maybe, Mr. Weinstein will do the right thing and, finally, distance himself from the EDL and all it stands for.  I'm not holding my breath, mind you, but I have been informed he is capable of acts of simple human decency.

Criminal Eyes: Is Toronto Sun Using Stock Photos on Its front Page?

This fellow seems to think so.  Don't know what he's talking about re page 2, but that sounds interesting as well:

So with Sun Media not being part of the Ontario Press Council anymore, does this mean I can't complain about the fake news picture on the front page of today's Toronto Sun (July 22)? The Sun ran a cheap photo ($3.75?) bought from a US web site and passed it off as a current Canadian news picture of a "war criminal".

What about the factually-incorrect story on page two? All other Toronto papers got the facts correct but then they used their own people to report the story. The Toronto Sun got the story from a cheap, non-news, US company

The pic DOES look really Istock, but I admit I haven't found an exact match using "criminal eyes" or "black balaclava" or whatever.  I leave this as an exercise to my readers, who are surely the smartest readers in the world.

Hudak Tories Politicize Perversion

On Team Hudak's media events:

...the only reason we went to the Bayshore Trail "event" was that it was so unbelievably, jaw-droppingly audacious to use the scene of a recent spate of flashings to suggest a GPS bracelet might do something to keep these cretins from pulling out their junk in public.

And here's a description of the 5'6, stockily built Bayshore Trail Flasher, coming to a Hudak chain gang near you...but wearing a GPS bracelet.

Lucian Freud Is Dead

 As anyone who has read my ongoing analysis of Canada's Group of 7 painters must realize, I don't know much about art.  But I do know my way around uncompromising assholes.  Painter Lucian Freud was one, and his death today lessens the species in ways that will not be appreciated for years and decades.

And, on yeah, its the 60th anniversary of LW's death.  Who, you ask? 

Fie upon you all!  The West is doomed.

Jason Kenney Blows Off Bishops

 ...says lawyer up if you don't like law.  Also, the CPoC is still officially against section 13.  Not that the government plans to act.

One Last Time To The Barricades!

 If the Torys really want to scrap the gun-registry, then lets give 'em one last fight, at least drive their approval numbers down for awhile (which always happens when the gun-registry issue comes up).  Because why not?  Valhalla awaits.  The LPoC seems down with it, but the NDP may go squishy.  Hopefully, this guy can help stiffen their spines.

And a clip from one of my favorite movies, to set the mood:

Fraser Institute No Longer Employing Dead To Peer Review FI Reports

 After much prodding from the Sixth Estate, the Fraser Institute has kicked the last stiff from their editorial advisory board.  Somehow I have the feeling this will have no salutary effect on the quality of their publications.

Burn Them To The Ground

Anonymous to release NOTW, Sun emails.

Fire...them...all.  And jail the rest.

Cadborosaurus, You Have Crushed My Soul!

The long-awaited footage of the Alaskan Cadborosaurus is just a freakin' wave.  Discount the guys in the video.  They're fishermen, after all. I hate you, Caddy!  I hate you!

Background here.  But I can write no more.  Tears stain my keyboard.

Not Helping

From the ARPA website:

An old ARPA article from 2009 has been getting a lot of attention in Ontario over the past few days in light of comments about Tim Hudak and whether he is pro-life. In light of that, we checked back through our old emails from two years ago to verify what was written. The content was correct, but it should have clarifified that the email came from Hudak's campaign team at that time, not Hudak himself.


What this clarification suggests to me is that Hudak's anti-abortion position statement to ARPA in 2009 was his official campaign line at the time.  Staffers would not free-lance on a matter like this.  So this makes Mr. Hudak's suggestion that he may (or may not) have signed a petition to defund abortion sound disingenuous.  Why would a staffer say Hudak had signed when he had not?  How would the staffer know unless he had been told?

Flip...FLOP!

When he was running for the PC leadership in 2009, Hudak told the Association for Reformed Political Action he is pro-life and had signed petitions calling for the defunding of abortions.

Hudak said today he "may have" signed a petition in that regard, but quickly added he has no intention of re-opening the abortion debate if the Tories win the Oct. 6 Ontario election.

However, the Opposition Leader refused to say if he still opposes abortion.

When questioned by reporters, Hudak said only that he would follow Prime Minister Stephen Harper's lead and leave the abortion issue alone.

Hudak's path to the PCPO leadership: seduce the party SoCons; abandon the party SoCons.

Manufacturing Bullshit

Jean Goodwin teaches English somewhere in Iowa.  She's also written a paper about the "manufacture" of consensus in the IPCC reports on climate change.  Its crap, but its a typical variety of crap, and so possibly interesting for that reason.   She's essentially bitching that the IPCC shouldn't be make much of the fact that its constituent scientists have achieved consensus over important elements of AGW theory. 

From the paper:

What is being done by this complex of features?—this rhetorical form, which I will call a "consensus claim"? One place to begin is by realizing its oddity. After all, we teach our students to recognize and reject ad populum or "bandwagon" appeals. I suspect that it would be hard to find scientists claiming to each other that such & such ought to be believed, because a "consensus of scientists" thus quantified backed it.

This statement is naive, and indicates a real lack of understanding of scientific practice and scientific history. Just to give one example, it is the almost universal consensus among paleontologists that birds are descended from and in fact are dinosaurs.  The fact of this "consensus" is brought up occasionally by practitioners in the field, without shame or hesitation.  For example,  it isn't really unusual to hear it argued that the last few scientists holding out against the consensus are getting old and publishing long-ago refuted arguments in crummier and crummier journals.  That's actually considered a salient point against them.  I've written about it here; you can see the wikipedia version here.  Presumably, for Ms. Goodwin, these are  "improper" arguments.  But I would suggest its stock in trade across many fields.  It is certainly not odd.  So if there is a problem with the manufacturing of consensus, it is hardly unique to Climate Science.  But I don't think it is a problem; knowing, for example, that the only person advocating a theory is a fringe kook teaching out in nowhere'sville can be extremely useful to deciding how much time to spend figuring out whether their views make sense.

In any case, whatever scientists might be telling their students, arguments from authority are ubiquitous in both science and everyday life. They are neither proper or improper in essence; they are just arguments to be evaluated in context

Now, in Judith Curry's post on the topic, the statement below occurs, and in fact has attracted most of the attention from the deniosphere:

"We shall argue that consensus among a reference group of experts thus concerned is relevant only if agreement is not sought. If a consensus arises unsought in the search for truth and the avoidance of error, such consensus provides grounds which, though they may be overridden, suffice for concluding that conformity is reasonable and dissent is not. If, however, consensus is aimed at by the members of the reference group and arrived at by intent, it becomes conspiratorial and irrelevant to our intellectual concern."

But it isn't from the Goodwin paper.  Rather, its from an abstract to a paper by Leher which neither Curry nor anyone else has bothered to read because its behind a pay-wall.  And because its a fragment, it is possible that the paper as a whole is not quite so silly, but on its own the statement is unmitigated bullshit.

Or, to put it another way: accept it and you would have to reject the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, among other good things within science. This last was an attempt, and a conscious one undertaken over a number of decades, to bind what was known about genetics and what was known about Natural Selection into a single coherent body of knowledge, which became and still is the current consensus (more or less) within evolutionary biology.  Forging the synthesis was a thoroughly willed act, which involved recurrent meetings among experts from across relevant fields to build and test the emerging synthesis, from the Tübingen conference in the late 1920s, which ended in failure, to the Princeton conference in the 1940s, where there was found to be almost no disagreement among conference participants. 

Nevertheless, according to Mr. Lehrer and by implication Ms. Curry, this "consensus building" activity would have amounted to a conspiracy.

On Nice Guys

Bernie Farber, running for Liberal MPP up in Thornhill, has a good column in Shalom Life, touting the Ontario Libs accomplisments in health-care.

Dennis Gruending, whose excellent blog explores the interconnections between Pulpit and Politics has a book coming out which does the same thing and is, perhaps unsurprisingly, entitled Pulpit and Politics.

That is all.

Sun Media Steps Back From Brink?

Glenn Garnett, Sun Media's VP of editorial, has agreed to meet with Ontario Press Council reps and "discuss" their decision to pull out of the regulatory body.

Funny that Sun Media would make their decision in the midst of the News Of The World Scandal.  But I still think its about money.  Accountability costs.  Casting off the bonds of respectability in tough economic times is like cutting corners when you're building a bridge.  It makes fiscal sense... for awhile.

The State Of Climate Change Denial In Australia

The target is  Hans Schellnhuber, advisr to the German government:.
My Australian is a bit weak, but a loose translation of the guy in the clip is: "Before you begin, Mr Schellnhuber, I would like to present you a gift ... I'd like to present you this carbon-friendly noose."

h/t

Question Of The Day

A question which, incidentally, has no good answer.  And, by the way, defunding abortion is not a decades old position, as Hudak staffer Jacob Bloom has suggested (in a tweet he seems to have deep-sixed, so he probably has realized that by now); its from a 2009 statement made to ARPA in the run-up to the PCPO leadership convention, when Tim was trying to ingratiate himself to suspicious party SoCons.

This is an old statement.  So if Mr. Hudak flip-flops on the issue, he'll have done it twice.

h/t

Not Again

Connie and Ed have launched an appeal of the decision which ended their last appeal, and which ordered them to turn over to Richard Warman documents related to the anonymous posters who allegedly defamed Mr. Warman.  Connie and Ed (or their lawyer) will be arguing that the previous judge did not sufficiently weigh free speech issues against Mr. Warman's right to have the identity of the posters disclosed.

But the legal fees are piling up.  Another fundraiser has been launched after the previous couple of them fell short.

Things Which May Be Connected

 Kate's Butt.

Sun Media's decision to pull out of the Ontario Press Council:

The Toronto Sun must be getting too many complaints about its decision to publish that embarrassing Kate Middleton photo. The Sun has apparently removed the picture from its web site.

The Sun initially held the picture for two days before running it. Is this because the photo violated the media rules and publishing it sooner would've had the Sun kicked off the tour? (I've covered eight royal tours).

The Sun tried to mitigate any potential fallout by (i) (wrongly) claiming that the same/similar photos by other photographers were "circling the globe"; (ii) likening the photo to a fun, posed, publicity picture of Marilyn Monroe; and (iii) claiming the picture was "compelling and newsworthy".

No other wire services moved the picture. No other paper published it. Even British tabs refused to use a similar picture.

Having done extensive research via google image employing such terms as "Kate's Butt" and "Royal upskirt", I can confirm point i).

Sun Old-Timers Respond To Sun Media Decision To Pull Out Of Ontario Press Council

 Makes sense. Why would a newspaper chain with ethics that are often questioned by readers volunteer to be challenged by a body that investigates reader complaints?

Forget the "political correctness" canard.  This decision is economic.  If you're losing money all the time, withdrawing from a regulatory body--even a weak one like the press council, saves you on legal fees.  And if your goal as a newspaper chain is to slander and spread hate-speech, the savings can be considerable.

There's no glorious rebellion here.  The same newspaper chain that is rumoured to make its own employees take out their own trash and pee out an eight floor window rather than provide functioning bathrooms wants to cut a few $s  that it might otherwise  have to pay to their lawyer squad.

Lindsay Blackett Out As Alberta Tory Leadership Candidate

 Apparently, his decision was made last month, but done in so low key a fashion that nobody in the MSM noticed.  Meanwhile, Mr. Blackett has issued a ringing defense of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, this in advance of using the Wildrose Alliance's decision to abolish the commission if elected as a bludgeon with which to club the upstart party during a provincial election.

Have You Seen These Trees?

If you have, you're looking at Gatineau Hills, by Group of Seven painter Frederick J. Varley,  which was stolen from the Canadian Fine Arts Store.  Please wrestle it from the thief, run away,  and call police from a safe place.

As to the stolen painting itself, Gatineau Hills illustrates how the Group of Seven typically responded to an environment relatively denuded of trees, which was to use their artist's eye to zero in on whatever trees the landscape offered, however unimpressive, and paint those.  However, you can see in this instance  that Varley became dissatisfied with the quality of tree available, and finally decided "Fuck it!  I'll throw in a few rocks for good measure!" 

The date on this work is unknown ( more specifically: I'm too lazy to look it up), but it may have presaged the Seven's later Trees AND Rocks period, when they realized that painting foliage alone was not enough to satisfy the soul.

Source.

PS.  This one is actually rather purty.

New Ontario Liberal Ad

I actually like this one.  For one thing, it accentuates Tim Hudak's propensity to dorky expressions.  Secondly, the reviews really have been that bad.  The ad doesn't even get to Chris Selley's assessment of the PCPO fiscal plan: we cannot remember encountering such an aggressively stupid political campaign as the Progressive Conservatives are currently running.  Ah well.  There'll be other ads.

NDP Moves To Stiff Ex-Gay Org

 Delegates with Canada’s newly-minted official Opposition, the New Democrat Party (NDP), passed a resolution calling on the government to revoke the charitable status of groups that support those seeking to overcome same-sex attraction at their policy convention in Vancouver last month.

Introducing the resolution, which was passed unanimously, outgoing “LGBT” co-chair Matthew McLaughlin specifically urged the government to revoke the status of Exodus Global Alliance, and asked that they investigate other ex-gay groups as well.

“Ex-gay organisations … take advantage of LGB people, often in vulnerable family situations or at grips with depression and self-hatred, and browbeat them — saying that LGB people never live happy lives, that we are unhealthy and unwhole, and that we never experience love and that the only hope lies in their therapies,” said McLaughlin, according to the homosexual blog Slap Upside the Head.

The article references this post from Slap Upside The Head, which suggests that a private member's bill is in the works if the Canada Revenue Agency doesn't act on its own.  More generally, it makes it sound as though the NDP has a strategy to push its own issues while in opposition.  Meanwhile, what are the Libs up to?  In therapy, on a bus.  *Sigh*  More with the buses.

The Future Of Ford Nation

"The fluoridation of drinking water could be eliminated, with impacts on dental health," says the multi-million $ KPMG that report Rob Ford ordered up to help him cut T.O. services.

Actually, I've been told that a few city councillor's have been suggesting that one or two West End water-pads start charging residents for using them.  And the response from residents out there has been to go ape-shit.  This is what you get when you tell everyone that the city's fiscal problems are everyone's but their's.  Nobody is willing to sacrifice.

Venues Cancel On Lord Monckton

No longer a big draw in the U.K, Climate Change Denier Chris Monckton (3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley) has spend the last couple of summers touring the former colonies.  This summer, he's back in Australia.  But there's a wee problem.  From Leon Ashby, president of the Australian Climate Sceptics Party:

The tour with Lord Monckton travelling Australia is having its challenges with 6 venues canceled before Lord Monckton appears.

The obvious influence against the Monckton events is the Getup network which had the campaign against Monckton advertised on its web site.

Its people were imitating club members and complaining to clubs so they pull the event.

The other influence is an apparent political interference from someone higher up the " sporting funding chain" that leaned on the clubs to cancel.

This was obvious with the Port Adelaide Football club cancellation.

The letter goes on to note that some other venues are entertaining second thoughts after Lord Monckton likened the Australian government's chief climate advisor Ross Garnaut to a Nazi.

Good on whoever's behind these protests.  Debating the likes of  Monckton is basically wasting your breath.

How Minister For The Environment Peter Kent Got Hacked: He Clicked On The Ass!

An explanation of the Peter Kent Facebook hack:

Actually, that's thanks to a well-known weakness in the FB apps API. It ends up allowing people to post a link to an external website, and then have that link automatically share that link on the person's wall and to their friends. The conclusion? Peter Kent clicked on the link when he saw another victim post it, and it was automagically spread all around as if he'd intentionally shared it. I see those things blow by on my feed all the time... always good for a larf at the sucker that got conned into clicking the link.

OH MY!

Peter Kent's Facebook Page Hacked!

 ...link posted to porn site:

At least I am assuming it was hacked.  But not by me, I would hasten to add.
Source.

I Want One

 ...because one of these:

...might eventually lead to one of these:

...which would be really cool.

h/t

PS.  Another lazy, newsless Sunday.  If you missed it, here's Kate's butt.

Pop Genius Alert: ‪tUnE-yArDsl‬‏

A bit like a Latin inflected MIA, but MIA raps while even on this live recording you can tell Merrill Garbus has a kick-ass set of pipes.  If she doesn't become a huge star, then there is no justice.

Alas!

Canadian Jews lose their sanest, most progressive voice:

Effective July 1st, the Canadian Jewish Congress is discontinuing its activities. Canadian Jewish advocacy will be handled by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA). In the near future, the CIJA website will be overhauled and expanded to reflect the enlarged mandate.

Note that Canada's largest Jewish advocacy group now has "Israel" in its name.  A real pity that.

PS. Though sad, this news is not unexpected.

The Royals In Calgary: Notes On Body Language

Note the male royalty guy (Charles? Wally?) in both pics.  His pose in the .jpg  below is saying: Surely you jest?

The one below can be interpreted as: No... fucking...way!

The princess chick looks like she's basically closed her eyes and is sacrificing for Old England.  Now, Naheed Nenshi is grinning in both shots.  But he's the son of  immigrants; he's just happy to be here. Note the guy in the background, though.  He, especially in the lower picture, seems to understand how incredibly dorky cowboy hats are.  He's probably also secretly embarrassed that the Royals have figured out that Calgary is one of the few cities in North America where they don't get  the whole concept of a two-way street. Such introspective ability is rare in an Albertan.  Therefore he may be gay.  I'd be interested in more information about him in the comments.

Update: They finally wore the hats.  In this picture, the prince dude is telling somebody to fuck off or they'll get a punch in the mouth.

Canada Possesses One Of The World's Tallest Midgets!

Same difference. Oh, and don't talk to the Aussies's about small armies.

Meanwhile, Kelly McParland says we should be proud of our failure.

Census Info Already Degraded

Stats Can will take any piece of crap you're willing to send them:

OTTAWA - Census officials are settling for incomplete long questionnaires in the final push of the 2011 collection period.

A longer version of the story here.

For Those Keeping Track

From David Gollob, Director of Communications, Canadian Human Rights Commission:

 The Commission did not accept any complaints under section 13 in 2010.

Tory Anti-Tobacco Law Proves Useless

I wrote surprisingly alot about Bill C-32, which banned the sale of flavoured tobacco products targeted at children. Cigarillos, basically.  It turns out to be a fairly meaningless stab at populism:

Bill C-32 requires that cigarillos less than 1.4 grams cannot be flavoured or sold in packages of less than 20 units. Since the law doesn't affect cigars more than 1.4 grams, tobacco companies quickly took advantage of the loophole and put cigars weighing just over the required minimum weight on the market.

Oddly enough, with all the to-ing a fro-ing over C-32, nobody appears to have thought of this loophole.

Canadian Hindu Advocacy = 2 Skinny Hindi

 ...Naresh Patel and Ron Banerjee, so their promise to erect "massive pickets" outside Valley Park Middle School, which brings in an Imam for Friday prayer services , can safely be met with wild gales of laughter.

 As for whether the service offends the notion of  public schools as secular space, I am of two minds.  There may be a slippery slope here, although Joe Warmington's arguments aren't terribly compelling: putting up a nativity scene around Xmas seems far more peripheral to the Christian religion than weekly prayer services do to the Muslim one.  Furthermore, does anyone really expect the school to hand out late slips every week to upwards of 400 students for running off to pray?  That sounds impractical.

Fox News North Update! Lieberman Replaces Caldwell

Sun News Network weekend anchor Caryn Lieberman will be the new host of a weekday program called Right Now.

The show, which will air weekdays from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. EST, will focus on, quite literally, what's happening right now.

The evening slot that previously saw a shortened version of Caldwell now gets Coren.  Right Now replaces Caldwell's two hour afternoon show.  Their evening news update guy, Brian Dunstan, now gets to work weekends too.

Scientists Swapping Data: Climate Scientists About As Open As Other Scientists!

This paper is based on a survey of scientists from various disciplines in regards to their hopes/dreams/fears/bitches whines/complaints re data sharing in their particular discipline. Having read it through, I don't see anything too shocking.  Most scientists think their field doesn't do bad in the realm of data openness, but could do better.  I'm not sure how climate science fits into the paper's nomenclature, but either of the possibilities (environmental vs. atmospheric sciences) don't do too bad re openness. 

I've reproduced one of many charts in the paper below, having chosen this one more or less at random:

Surely the real story is in the details, but I'm too lazy for those.

Die Media Die: Theo Caldwell's Internet Presence Is Threatened

Since Fox News North sacked him, he's on the verge of being deemed not notable  Someone please help:

Or, on the other hand, if nobody bothered to improve, source, or rename the page, it would disappear as though it never had been, which might replicate Mr. Caldwell's career path with Sun TV.

Screencap from here.

h/t

Did Dykes Doom Pride Parade?

Actually, this will be interesting.  Technically, they've dodged the city's dictates, as they are not QuAIA. 

h/t to Shaidle's hubby.

Pro-Palestine Dykes March At Pride!

...and there's councillor George Mammaliti who, as promised, has come to photograph the dykes in their anti-Israel perfidy.  Don't think his services are needed, with City TV around, but an A for effort.

Apparently, Meir Weinstein and the JDL are somewhere in the vicinity as well.  Someone should try and get a shot of Meir warming up for the confrontation.  The guy's got martial arts training, and sometimes he'll break a brick against his skull for practice.  Sometimes, just before battle, he whips his shirt off.  And sometimes he brings Jewish Bikers!  Those dykes are going to get the thrashing of a lifetime!

Fraser Institute Editorial Advisory Board Largely Dead

I have seen this previously with other right-wing think tanks, but as the gentleman at The 6th Estate  has noted on several occasions, a fair number of  people on the The Fraser Institute editorial advisory board have long passed from this mortal coil. And, as this fellow notes, the editorial advisory board is

...the final arbiter in the Institute’s peer review process.

So: no rest for the wicked, I guess, even in death.