Blogger Threatens Harper With Death, Gets Away With It

I don't recall the incident that precipitated this case at all, perhaps because "almost nobody visited the blog" in question (and it seems to have disappeared). And the Phantom Observer is the only blogger that seems to have reported on it back in March. Note that this guy is not Allen Varlaki, who once suggested that Harper should have to "take a bullet", although the two incidents both took place in March '07.

But the bottom line seems to be that death threats uttered in the direction of famous people are okay in the context of satire:

....the blog entries were the result of a creative process where he would write as the angry and disillusioned character, Drunken Soldier, poking fun at the idea of blogging and current events.

But of course one can also satirize the non-famous. What happens when you began to issue fictitious death threats against a fellow blogger or the girl who won't go out with you in college?

Give The Denier His Due

Steve McIntyre's weblog Climate Audit has always been a hotbed of Climate Change Denialism, and he has spent much of the last several years flailing about madly in an effort to discredit the science behind AGW. However, it seems he might have hit onto something this time, having detected an error in the Global Historical Climatology Network's data collection procedures which, when corrected, reorders the the ranking of 10 hottest years recorded in the lower 48 states of the United States such that several years in the 1990s and 2000s fall out of the top ten, and several years from the 1930s come into it.

The new and old top ten lists can be found here, and the numbers for the last 120 years, as corrected by NASA itself, can be found here.

Now, there are lots of mitigating factors to consider. For example, the new adjustment does not seem to affect global average values much (these are calculated separately using results from a number of distinct networks). Nevertheless, grist for the skeptics mill, and material that will get huge play over the course of the next several months.

MacKay On The Arctic: You Can't Use It If You Can't Find It

From The Embassy Magazine:

Immediately after Russian scientists planted their country's flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole to bolster their recent territorial claim, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay dismissed it as a "show by Russia."

However, his assertion that the area is actually Canadian property has raised questions about his understanding of the Arctic file as the flag was planted in international territory.

"Minister MacKay demonstrated a clear lack of understanding on the issue by referring to this as Canadian waters on the basis of a long-standing Canadian claim," said Michael Byers, holder of the Canada Research Chair on Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia.

"He got his speaking notes for the Northwest Passage mixed up with his speaking notes for the Arctic Ocean, and I think that's pretty appalling given the importance of this particular issue for the long-term interests of Canada."


The guy can't tell Toronto from Halifax. How do you think he's going to distinguish one hunk of ice from another?


Incidentally, has anyone set odds on MacKay's getting the boot during next week's cabinet shuffle? His name hasn't come up in places like this, but his various screw-ups have left him unpopular on both sides of the political spectrum. Personally, I would not be surprised to see him shuffled.

The CFLI (Coalition For Fair Lumber Imports) Awakens

A few people have noticed that the Canada/U.S. softwood lumber dispute is heating up again, and that the new set of U.S. legal challenges will actually be financed with the 1/2 billion or so we handed over to them to grovel our way to a "deal" in 2006.

Less noted is that the Coalition For Fair Lumber Imports, had cranked out a news release within minutes of the U.S. governments decision to seek binding arbitration against Canada to "compel Canada to live up to its SLA (Softwood Lumber Agreement) obligations." The CFLI news release can be found here, and laments:

"...the Coalition supports the initiatives taken today by the U.S. Government as Canada has unilaterally and without consultation undermined the softwood lumber agreement by refusing to implement key terms.... [T]he required tax and quota limits on shipments are essential to remedy Canada’s unfair trade practices. Canada’s failure to honor its commitments under the agreement continues to severely harm the U.S. lumber industry which is suffering curtailments and layoffs caused by production cutbacks that are occurring at twice the rate in the United States compared to our subsidized Canadian counterparts."

The CFLI is the power behind the throne on this issue and, if you're wondering why, get a load of their membership list, which was accidentally e-mailed to the media in early 2006. Far from being an obscure group of underdog woodsmen, it is in reality composed of many of the largest soft-wood lumber companies in the United States. You can be sure they don't give two farts about industry "layoffs".

This whole slowly unfolding disaster, by the way, was a result of Harper's 2006/07 re-election strategy. The original deal was cobbled together to last just long enough that the Tories might ride its "success" to a majority. Now that this strategy has failed, watch the deal unravel and--the one bright spot in all this--watch the Harper Tories wear it big-time.

The New Broom Sweeps Clean

From Canoe.ca:

ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) - A New York state woman who was quick with the bargains at her rummage sale mistakenly accepted 50 cents for a ceramic turtle with the ashes of her husband's previous wife inside.

Something similar happened to my brother, when mom sold his copy of Silver Surfer #1 at a garage sale. But I guess this is a little more serious.

Did NASCAR Flop In Quebec?

NASCAR came to Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last weekend, and the Conservative Party of Canada sponsored Car 29, driven by none other than Pierre Bourque. Their reasoning? According to party spokespeople, the move was designed to reach out to an audience (stock car fans) that might be beyond normal channels of communication.

How successful are they likely to be in this attempt? Here are a few facts to make you go hmmm!

From wiki, the average attendance at a NASCAR race: 186,000.

From boomtickets, the seating capacity at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve: 100,000.

From Dave Feschuck in the Star, attendance at the race-rack Saturday afternoon: 68,150.

Hardly a tidal wave of humanity, in other words. In fact, an attendance figure that was way below average. The Tories might do better to convince Celine Dion to wear the party colors. She does about 50,000 per night on a typical tour date.

A Last Note On The Free D Fiasco: Where Were The Blogging Tories?

One thing that I wondered about throughout the whole Free Dominion affair was: where are the Blogging Tories? Other than a few hard-cores like Flanders (who is, by the way, about to throw in the towel on his website), there seemed very little in the way of response.

Well, one reason for this seems to be that their leader, Stephen Taylor, was actively discouraging discussion of the issue (at least on the BT forums):

Just a moderator's note: Please do not repost material from FreeDominion that is the subject of the CHRC complaint. Doing so exposes us, and this warning serves as clear notice that we will pursue civil action against anyone that in turn exposes us to CHRC action related to this complaint against FreeDominion.

Translation: here's a warning that says if you get us in trouble with the CHRC for material we've warned you not to post, we will do what we can to recover our damages (from you) because this warning also indicates that as moderators and site owners, that we don't want to have anything to do with the material that lands a person (rightly or wrongly -- which is another debate) with a human rights complaint.

A gutsy bunch, and telling that they should fall into line so easily. Its a strange world when you are deriving most of your support from your political enemies.

Also, I will probably not being posting as often, or as extensively, over the course of the next couple of weeks. Hopefully BCLSB won't descend to a stream of cheap booby jokes, but of course I can promise nothing.

Steyn On Black

The short version. (*)

(That may be it for today. Will be out most of the afternoon, then going to see "Hairspray". Have a nice civic holiday.)

The Christians Strike Back!

Has anyone noticed this before? Type in http://bigcitylib.blogpsot.com/ (note the transposed "p" and "s") and you are taken to the Amazing Bible's Bible College On Line: A mega-site of Bible, Christian and religious information and studies. For awhile, I thought AB might be trying to use this particular blog to harvest sinners, thinking that my readers are a more than usually depraved lot (plus note the similarity in abbreviated titles). However, if you transpose the two letters of any blogspot blog (that I've tested), you are taken to the same place. Devlishly clever, in that if you type it wrong once and visit the mega-site, the fact that the "ps"comes before "sp" will cause your address bar to display the Amazing Bible page first.


Bit surprised they've been able to get away with this. I thought it was customary for large companies to buy up all the URLs that result from common mispellings and direct them to the proper home-page.

BCLSB EXCLUSIVE!!! More On The Federal Government Blogger Ban

On Wednesday, the folks at The Galloping Beaver reported that a number of Lib/Left bloggers, including yours truly, had been banned on computers in the AAFC (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). Yesterday, Raging Ranter, a hard-core Blogging Tory and occasional commenter here, suggested in one of his comments that the ban was not limited to progressive sites:

On an unrelated topic, you'll be disappointed to hear that many blogs of various political persuasions are now blocked from federal government networks. (This I know because a friend of mine (in Winnipeg) reported that he is unable to get many of the Blogging Tories from work, including the Raging Ranter anymore.) Oddly enough, some high traffic sites, including SDA, are still accessible.

And then later:

BCL, I'm not sure why the ban seems so hap-hazzard. SDA allowed, RR not allowed??? Jesus, I only get 15 hits a day as it is! (Mind you, I guess it doesn't help that I haven't posted since June 11.) Nor do I know whether it affects all federal government computers or just certain departments. But I'll wager a guess and speculate that the filtering software, which is updated regularly, now includes various blogging domains such as Word Press and Blogspot. I believe that SDA does not use an actual blogging service, so that could be the reason.

I don't buy RR's theory, because Bread and Roses, for example, is not really a blog and yet has been banned, and it seems that many of the Blogspot sites can still be accessed. But I have no better theory to offer in its place.

In any case, whatever the facts of the matter might be, I would argue that I personally am STILL a dangerous radical, and folks high up in the Harper regime are still afraid of me. Honest!

PS. Actually this fellow had the story before me.

Holy Crap! Tory Race Car DOESN'T Crash!

Mind you, Tory driver Pierre Bourque finished pretty well back(in 12th):

12. (17) Pierre Bourque, Ottawa, Ontario, Dodge, 23, $1,500.

May Stephen Harper and Co. do as well next election.

Banning Hand Guns

Just a ref to a story in The Star.

I'm agin' it, frankly, because it seems to be a misdirection of political energy. The Star gives a figure of 30 per cent stolen from legitimate owners, 70 per cent smuggled from the U.S.

So why isn't more energy, any energy, being directed at stopping smuggling from over the U.S. border? Down in Arizona they fly dirigibles along the border to keep out Coke dealers from Mexico (not that they're particularly successful). You think the Canadian government might at least make an effort to keep guns made in Texas out of Ontario.

Oh I forget. The U.S. is our largest trading partner and etc. But its not just the political Right that wants to self-flagellate to avoid offending our Yankee Masters. A lot of us Lefties would rather chase crumbs rather than stir up enough international crap to make a dent in the real handgun problem.

Also a link to Rex Murphy's column re UofT's closing the sport shooting range at Hart House. A lady I work with has represented Canada at international shooting events on several occasions. Believe it or not, it IS a real sport. But she has a hell of a time finding sponsors, because for some reason her event has been dubbed politically incorrect. And yet we don't penalize javelin throwers or archers, though their sport also involves showing facility with a weapon.

The Return Of The Turtle!

My Gawd! I thought when I saw the picture at left, someone has built a working replica of a revolutionary war era Turtle submarine, the first submarine ever to be used in combat!

And that someone is Duke Riley, a New York artist, who was trying to get his little egg-shaped craft close enough to the Queen Mary II so he could snap a few photos of his home-made sub against the cruise ship's looming bulk. Instead, harbor police had him arrested when he violated its security zone.

Here is Mr Riley's flickr site devoted to his "egg", and here his website, devoted to some of his other projects over the years.

Incidentally, I really did tag this thing as a replica of The Turtle when I saw it. As a teenager, the history of the submarine was one of my favorite topics. As it turns out, most of the the pioneers of this technology found themselves dead at the bottom of a river somewhere. So it had both excitement and pathos!

Free-D Off The Hook

Marie-Line Gentes has withdrawn her complaint against Free Dominion and requested that the CRHC take no further action against the site.

The right result, I suppose, although frankly I would have liked to see Mark and Connie squirm a bit more.

Meanwhile, Ivor Tossell's Thursday column in the Globe offered probably the most common-sensical take on this whole debacle:

...in the end, websites deserve to be tarred with the crowds they attract. Daily Kos isn't a hate site, but if it fosters a culture of wing nut commentary, it deserves the stigma it gets.

So it should be with Free Dominion. On its owners: shame, for creating such a nasty place. But let the Whatcotts of the world face the law for their words on their own.

Finally, the most interesting thing about this are the meagre numbers Free-D managed to conjure for their Facebook Group and Petition: about 200 members and 100 signatures. Pretty sad for a forum boasting (allegedly) upwards of 8,000 contributors.

Maybe it really is a case of 200 wing nuts with 40 sock puppets apiece.

Is It Real Or Is It PhotoShop?

From the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas, a researcher and computer security consultant named Neal Krawetz presented a new tool for detecting manipulated photographs/videos:

Using a program he wrote (and provided on the conference CD-ROM) Krawetz could print out the quantization tables in a JPEG file (that indicate how the image was compressed) and determine the last tool that created the image -- that is, the make and model of the camera if the image is original or the version of Photoshop that was used to alter and re-save the image.

Comparing that data to the meta-data embedded in the image he could determine if the photo was original or had been re-saved or altered. Then, using error level analysis of an image he could determine what were the last parts of an image that were added or modified.

Krawetz used Al Qaeda videos as his examples, but it seems you might also get interesting results by running official government/oppo party photos through this program, or some of the stuff that appears on MSM websites.

There is a link to the source code in the original article.

Cross-Country Pro-Life March Meets With Total Apathy

It's as though the shin splits have been for nought:

The other most difficult part of the trip, [Crossroads participant Cyril Doll] told LifeSiteNews.com, is the "apathy we've received from Canadians from coast to capital. If we don't have people constantly asking us what we're doing, supporting us, or even detractors, it's a temptation to lose focus. If you don't have someone either fighting you or patting you on the back, you kind of forget what it's all about."

Whoo hoo Canada! Apathy made this country great. It kept us out of that damned Iraq War, and now its keeping a woman's right to choose legal!

Mr. Doll continues:

Doll also told LifeSiteNews.com that the greatest blessing, the most rewarding aspect of the journey has been "having faith and just knowing what we're doing is going to make a difference. We may not see the fruits of our work," he said, "but as Catholics we know that our pain, our suffering, our prayers are never going to go to waste. The good Lord is distributing the graces."

Actually, kid, what you're doing will amount to squat. When its finished all you'll be left with are the blisters and memories of staggering along the Trans-Canada under a hot sun, wondering what you're name is and why you're doing this and knowing that all your friends back home are getting drunk on the beach.

I hope you at least got laid. Otherwise, that's one summer gone entirely down the tubes.

BigCityLib BANNED By Federal Government!

OhMyGawd, I'm in tears! I feel like I've won an Oscar, and the wife is saying I've finally made the Big Time! As reported at The Galloping Beaver, BigCityLib Strikes Back and several other illustrious progblogs have been blocked on staff computers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada:

Not sure if anyone else has reported on this: I am a federal civil servant and (while on a break!) noticed that the Galloping Beaver, Calgary Grit and BigCityLiberal are all now blocked from government desktops (at least in my Dept - AAFC). This wasn't the case 2 wks ago.

And a bit lower down:

A quick survey around some of the other Internet comment sites and forums suggests that other progressive sites and blogs are also blocked on some government computers. The coincidence of discovering that TGB, Calgary Grit, BigCityLiberal and Bread and Roses are blocked on computers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (and some other federal government locations) is just too much to let slide by without a few words.

I agree that it can't be "adult content" that triggered the block. While B&R and this blog sometimes "work blue", and B&R is just packed with raunchy feminists (visit the site and you can almost hear Patti Smith playing in the background), Calgary Grit is probably one of the nicest guys in the sphere.

In any case, you can run but you can't hide, Stephen Harper! When this blog is finished with you, your government will be in ruins, and your philosophy in disgrace!

Update: National Newswatch has picked up the story. He's running it as a question "Grit blogs banned...?" so we look less silly if its nothing more than an IT snafu.

American Boobies (And Other Tales Of Sex On A Thursday Morning)

Is Nancy Pelosi following Hilary down the Britney trail, and flashin' 'em on the Senate floor (or at least showing a little cleavage)? Drudge thinks so.

Meanwhile, global warming means cats are having more sex, Bulgarians less. Details here. This is gonna drive Rex Murphy nuts.

Sorry, I'm in a hurry this morning and looking for a couple of "quickies". Hahaha.

Conrad Black Too Broke To Come Home!

Conrad Black must await sentencing in the U.S., because he can't muster the funds to get into Canada, ruled Judge Amy St. Eve today. She also ruled he should be given a daily spanking with a wet towel, to soften him up for those lonely men he'll meet in the joint.

Say, whose that hot chick beside him? Is that Barbara Amiel? I bet if she ever runs out of the blood of virgins, she'll crumble into dust like that chick in The Hunger .

The Houston Abortion Clinic Bomber: Christian To The Nutz??

Paul Ross Evans has pleaded guilty to the attempted bombing of the Austin Women's Health Center, and more and more it appears as though he fits the profile of a religious (Christian) terrorist:

Evans, 27, who pleaded guilty Friday, had the name and address of Austin lawyer Sarah Weddington, who successfully argued for the decriminalization of abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court case.

He also had the names and addresses of a stem-cell researcher, a rabbi and a pornography production company, all in California.

[...]

A later search of Evans' apartment, according to the plea agreement, found the following books: "Pipe and Fire Bomb Designs," "Special Forces Demolition Techniques," "The Turner Diaries" and "The Pelican Brief."

"The Pelican Brief," a legal thriller by John Grisham, was marked on a page about a bombing, the plea agreement said.

"The Turner Diaries," a 1978 novel that tells in part about a militia blowing up federal buildings, was written by the founder of the National Alliance, a white supremacist organization.

Apparently, he also confessed to targeting Satanists, although there is nothing about this facet of the story in the MSM piece linked to above. In fact, it was a spike in traffic I got this morning from The League Of Independent Satanists that made me think something had happened in the case. (Google News Alerts...Phooey!!!)