Border Guards? Oh Canada.

So if someone wants to attack Canada, all they have to do is tell us they are coming? And our "border guards" will rush off somewhere and hide? Seems like it.
When they shut down the border with Washington State yesterday, it was because they were told that a murder suspect was on his way to Canada on his motorcycle and might try to slip into the lineup with other bikers returning from the yearly Oyster Run. This event attracts about 15,000 riders. Not all from here.
So ... er, if this bad guy was trying to slip into the Canada, why weren't the RCMP stationed there too? Wouldn't someone just ask for ID from the bikers and if they knew the guy beside them? Wouldn't the 'guards' be alerted by California plates on the bike? Even if this bad man had a gun and our customs officials didn't, would he be likely to shoot someone with RCMP there and rush off into the Great White North? Hmmm, logic is unexpected.
Evidently, earlier in the day a car with California plates ran the border. No one said anyone went after that guy. No one even said they got a plate number. Why wasn't the US Border Patrol at their side watching? They know how hard it would be to extradite they guy once he got here.
And if this here bad guy was trying to 'slip' into Canada, wouldn't he try to be meek and mild, and deceptive? Did they think he'd come through with guns blazing ala Arnold Schartznegger?
Seems very smelly to me.
Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee .... well, unless you are a bad guy, then we run for cover.

Published by Netscape Anchors on www.netscape.com

Maher Arar - weird case or what?

So Maher Arar was returning to Canada from Tunisia. Maher Arar is a Syrian-Canadian. He changed planes in America. The RCMP had Maher, his wife and children on a watch list. His children at the time were 6 months and six years old. The Americans stopped him, decided from the Canadian information that Arar had some kind of terrorist leanings. So they sent Arar, on a PRIVATE jet, to SYRIA. Where Arar was tortured for information.
A couple of odd things here. Who owned this private jet? Hmmm, probably the CIA? Who else?
Can CIA planes just go to Syria to deposit prisoners illegally arrested? What did the Americans expect from Syria? Put aside whether you think Maher Arar is guilty of something or a terrorist or not and consider this.
So he gets to Syria, they extract 'information' under torture from Arar, and then they SEND this info back to America and Canada!
What?
Is Syria America's Middle East Guantanamo? Does Syria do the torturing for America? The two countries call each other names daily. Is that a ruse? Is Syria an American partner? What does CSIS and the RCMP do in all this? What exactly IS Syria's relationship with the West?
I can see some American officials sending Arar to Syria just for some weird sadistic pleasure. But they did it and expected to get information from Syria.
Weird or what?

Islam vs Everybody

Muslims are upset over Pope Benedict XVI's remarks when he quoted from a conversation that took place in Ankara in the year 1391 between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on Christianity and Islam.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached," the pope quoted Manuel as saying.
Now Muslims are being furiously stirred up over the quote. They want him to retract his remarks. Is another aspect of Islam to deny the fact of history?
They say that western clerics and politicians are "hostile to Islam." Like duhhh. Does anyone need to know WHY this hostility to Islam is growing worldwide? They say the pope's remarks hurt the feelings of Muslims worldwide and is creating a gulf between religions.
Who IS creating that gulf? Muslim extremists who are killing innocents worldwide? Or people who are faithful to Islam but never utter a condemnation of the extremists savage actions? Doesn't executing someone who sponsored a school for little girls in Afghanistan serve to create a gulf between Islam and the rest of the world?
Will they put out a 'hit' on the Pope for this? Someone has already started bombing Christian symbols in Gaza City. Maybe ask Salman Rushdie where his safe house is. Muslims don't seem to like fiction either.
Many are beginning to believe that WW III has started and it is Muslims against the world.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=112932

UPDATE: Sept 18 - MOGADISHU, Somalia -- An Italian nun who devoted her life to helping the sick in Africa was shot dead by two gunmen at a hospital Sunday in an attack possibly linked to worldwide Muslim anger toward Pope Benedict XVI. Sister Leonella, 65, was shot in the back four times by pistol-wielding attackers as she left the Austrian-run S.O.S. hospital at lunchtime. Sister Leonella had lived in Africa for 38 years. Her bodyguard was also slain.

Tony Parsons' new face

I wondered why he was away so long. Slow healer I guess.

Prediction - Aquarium - Done Deal

The Vancouver aquarium wants to expand. Again. The last expansion was opposed by many. It went ahead anyway. This time they aren't even going to ask for public input. They say it'll give bigger pools for seals and sea lions. Like we need to capture them when we can simply walk 100 yards to see them in Burrard Inlet. The Aquarium now hosts convention dinners. What's that got to do with fish? I guess they served fish-farmed salmon. Ugh.
This time they'll cut down another 32 more trees for their expansion. Want to bet it'll go ahead no matter what the public or Lord Stanley wants?
Done deal.



Back to Top

News items of the day

Some current headlines;

- President Bush announced that terrorist 'detainees' will be given Geneva Convention status.
Isn't this great? And of course the terrorists will now adhere to the same rules on their side.

- Katherine Harris won the Republican vote to run for the Senate in Florida. You remember Katherine, she counted the votes when Bush stole the presidency from Al Gore.

- Fast food restaurants being planned for prisons. Oh boy, McDonalds' fatty salads for prisoners. It's not cruel and unusual punishment, is it? Is it?

- Jewish man tossed off Air Canada Jazz flight for praying. After a pilot got locked out of his cockpit on a recent Jazz flight, oi vey, we should all be praying?

- Motorist jailed for blowing up speed camera. Shouldn't we chip in for his bail and defence?

- August death total in Bagdad morgue triples. Sheeez, what are those people in the morgue dying of?


Ah, the universe is unfolding as it should ...

unravelling?

Drugs - the correct sentencing

JAKARTA, Indonesia. An Indonesian appeals court sentenced four Australian drug smugglers to death, even though prosecutors who filed the petition were only seeking life behind bars, a court official said Wednesday. Scott Rush, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman were originally sentenced to life in prison for trying to take heroin from Indonesia's resort island of Bali to Australia last year. Those sentences were reduced to 20 years after their lawyers appealed.In response to an appeal from the prosecution, the Supreme Court ruled that the men would face a firing squad, said Mulyadi, a Supreme Court official who attended the Aug. 16 and Aug. 31 appeals hearings. "The Supreme Court sentenced them to death," he told The Associated Press. The results of final appeals by Martin Stephens and Michael Cjugaj also increase to the death penalty. Three more drug smugglers have since been convicted, and sentenced to death by firing squad.

When are we going to get with the program and stop coddling the scourge of our sons and daughters in Canada? Cruel and unusual? Drug dealers destroying the lives of Canadian youth is as cruel and unusual as it gets. The death sentence seems like a great deterent to me. Actually even humane, firing squad is quick and easy. And the Indonesians make no exceptions, beauty queen Schapelle Corby, the jail's only other Australian resident, and a convicted marijuana smuggler, is serving 20 years for marijuana smuggling, described by her lawyer Mr Ilham said: "She gets more beautiful every day." Too bad.
Do we get the message? Probably not.

Youth Wrestling - creepy or what?

A company called Go Sports Entertainment has been turned down by Langley Township council in BC, on an application to use a warehouse in the district as a studio to film youth wrestling for television. Turned down because of the lack of parking spaces.
Hmm, get this: They film 'youth' wrestlers from 13 to 21, according to an article in the Langley Times, a BC community newspaper. And they BUS in children from all over North America to watch the performances! Up to 350 of them.
Now this is not that wrestling as you see in the Olympics, which builds magnificent character and where the hard training may reward the contestants with a medal. This is called, by CEO Graham Owen himself as "Cirque du Soleil meets WWE and the matches are 100 percent predetermined." Choreographed violence?
What?
I love Cirque du Soleil. But see my post on this blog about WWE on July 6 titled, WWE - rasslin' at its best to read what I think about WWE.
WWE is all about fakery, disrespect, total violence and demeaning women. In my opinion, the guy who watches it is a 63 year old pipe smoking guy who still lives in his mother's basement and the only hard thing in his pants is his gun.
So why do we want children to learn ANYTHING about this form of (ugh) entertainment? Don't you find something ominously creepy about this? Children wrestling, children watching, sold to PPV TV for what purpose? What type of person would PAY to watch this childrens' violence? Who knows. And what parents would allow their children to be bussed there to attend this malevolence? What are we teaching these youth wrestlers? To emulate WWE RAW? Is MatRats really KidVid?
Let's hope the parking stall issue was only a convenient reason for Langley to disallow Go Sports Entertainment the facility. Creepiness as a reason probably wouldn't have done it.
Shudder.

http://overthetoprope.com/index.html