Creeping things...

1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Well, so much for the biblical position on the environment.

But speaking of creeping things, Public Eye Online reports that Darrel Reid, former President of "Focus on the Family" and former Chief of Staff for the Reform Party, has just been named Rona Ambrose' Chief of Staff. Although his anti-SSM, anti-abortion, anti-evolution, anti-stem cell research opinions were deemed too fuckwitted to get him elected to office in Richmond in the last election, there is evidently a home for them in the Ministry of the Environment.

Says Dr Reid : "I think every Christian's under an obligation to change laws to reflect biblical values."

Sure. Whatever.
I think we can all guess what God's position on the sacredness of the Alberta oil sands is going to be. And it seems unlikely that God's love for the little sparrow will be extended to the 17 remaining spotted owls in BC any time soon.
But this is just a patronage position for Dr Reid, right?
It's not exactly the inauguration of the Ministry of the Environment - End Times Division.

In an offline email, Corinne from YaYaCanada is not so sure and she provides this link to Marci McDonald's article in The Walrus Magazine - Stephen Harper and The Theo-Cons.

Picture courtesy of The Brick Testament.

2010 mascot

The Vancouver Olympic Committee is calling on all Canadians to go to the 2010 website before Nov. 1 to submit a proposal for what the 2010 mascot should be.
Here's my entry.
Sadly, this means there's no point in any of you other guys even trying now.

Link

Steve and Sandra play to their base

Steve : Whoa! What, no cartoon this time?
Sandra : We seem to be the victims of a program funding cut here, sir.

Steve : Hey, how are our own cuts playing to the base?
Sandra : Excellent, sir. They clearly demonstrate we don't like research or drugs or uppity women or gays or aboriginals. But that isn't even the best part....

Sandra : No, the best part is how they're reacting to the big cheque moment. They think you invented it, sir. Many of them don't realize that the $13 billion surplus was accrued under the Libs or that it must be applied to the debt every year by law or that the Libs paid down $82 billion in the last decade alone.

Steve : Yeah, well, it's all about optics. Speaking of which...Sandra, what are you wearing?
Sandra : Why, sir....this is rather unexpected...my red power jacket. Why?

Steve : Because it's Wednesday, Sandra. Wearing red on Wednesdays is not supporting the troops.
Sandra : Sorry, sir. I was wearing red in my spare time. Won't happen again, sir.

Memorize this quote

because we're probably going to be needing it again pretty soon.

"I just don't think it made sense for the government to subsidize lawyers to challenge the government's own laws in court," Treasury Board president John Baird said."

This is John "Workfare" Baird's justification for cutting funding to the Court Challenges Program, which funded litigation in the name of equal rights for those who could not otherwise afford it.
A Charter of Rights that cannot be accessed by everyone is not exactly a Charter of Rights then, is it, John?

The Court Challenges Program is on the same chopping block as funding for adult literacy, museums, future admin costs at Status of Women, medical marijuana research - you can read the whole sorry list for yourself at the Treasury Board of Canada website.

And about that quote : How long do you think it will be before Canada's Gnu Government will have occasion to "subsidize lawyers to challenge the government's own laws in court" ?

McVety to Harper : Pwned!

"The bible interprets itself" said blowhard buffoon Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, to howls of derision from the audience on CBC's "The Big Picture" tonight.

Other recent McVety quotes are not so easily laughed off.

Globe&Mail :
"McVety noted that large numbers of Conservative supporters actively campaigned to get out the vote in the last election for Tory MPs who oppose gay marriage, which he said contributed to a higher voter turnout and a Conservative victory.
"If they abandon those voters, they won't come out. And if there is not a high voter turnout, there will be no majority [Conservative] government," he said."

Shorter McVety : The Cons only need 4 out of 10 voters to attain a majority government in Canada. Right now they have 3 1/2.

So how is McVety gonna own Steve?

The Hill Times :
A "15-point lobbying campaign" costing "tens of thousands of dollars" which includes "prayer rallies in front of Member of Parliament [constituency] offices across the country" to be launched Sept 18.

Oh, lovely.
Just how many of those MPs do you think will be tough enough to stand up to McVety's flying monkeys in the media spotlight? Regardless of how they regard him in private, some of them might just be willing to cave rather than risk being painted as "godless" in an election. Just a few. Say, 10 or 15.

And suddenly we're looking at a Con majority owned by a few Christian whackos.
So yuck it up, my lovelies, because McVety certainly deserves it.
Just don't nap off here.

Wear red every Friday

and show support for our troops.
"let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red"
Link

UPDATE : Great post on this from Dave at TGB.
And scanning through the major papers today - nary a word on the origins of this thing.

Red Friday

Where'd that bug go reminds us of the Red Friday public rally on Parliament Hill today at noon.

"News Talk Radio 580 CFRA is proud to support the grassroots effort brought to Petawawa by the wives of two men serving in the Canadian Forces. The concept of wearing something red - whether a red shirt, jacket, cap, bandana or whatever - every Friday is meant to let the soldiers and their spouses and children know they are not alone."
There is a song - "We Wear Red", a musical tribute commemorating 9/11 and how "our lives were changed forever", and merchandise - like this Canadian "Support Our Troops" T-shirt with the big "Made in the USA" sticker across it.

And it turns out they are indeed not alone.
Coincidentally, there is also a Red Friday "grassroots effort" south of the border to get people to wear red on Fridays, and they also sell Support the Troops T-shirts .

What a shame these two grassroots efforts didn't get together on the merchandising for this one.

Ever helpful, we here at Creekside have designed a new T to more accurately represent both groups.
We are still working on the song.

The Anschluss watchdogs

Remember the super-secret deep integration conference at the Banff Springs Hotel last week?
And the quite spectacular non-coverage it received from CBC and the print media?

Well today it just became a whole lot more visible thanks to ...

Aaron Paton at the Banff Crag and Canyon who scooped the mainstream media.
Susan Thompson at Vive le Canada who followed up on publishing Mel Hurtig's email last week with a list of the conference's participants and agenda, and
Maude Barlow of Council of Canadians who provides a concise overview in today's Toronto Star, the first big paper to make any mention of it.

On the blogs, skdadl at Pogge summarizes the progress so far, while Ross at The Gazetteer has been pushing on this all week in five separate posts.

Take a bow, Anschluss watchdogs, for paying attention to the little men behind the curtain.

Update : Gosh, thanks just ever so, CBC, for this truly stellar piece of investigative journalism.
And to think they were working without a media press kit from Stockboy!
They did at least quote Banff taxi driver Chris Foote, who as Herbinator mentioned below, should have been prominantly included in my list above for his part in getting the word out.

Steve and Sandra's "Two Bit Plan"TM

Cerberus notes that Steve's "The Five Priorities"TM have suddenly morphed into "The Four Pillars"TM and The Gazetteer gives us his own version of Steve and Sandra.

You're either with the US or against us.

Maher Arar exonerated.
Completely. Unequivocally.

I am happy for him. I am angry for the rest of us.

On Saturday Arar flew from Kamloops to Calgary and then on to Ottawa to hear the results of the federal inquiry that would both clear his name and accuse the RCMP of wrongly telling US authorities that he was "an Islamic extremist suspected of being linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network".

He chose this route over a more direct Vancouver/Ottawa route because of the danger of that flight veering into US airspace. Understandable, wouldn't you say?
He presents his ticket and driver's licence to the Air Canada check-in clerk in Kamloops.
A flag on his name results in a fifteen minute security check
Arar asks the reporter travelling with him why his name is still flagged after four years.

Anyone want to tell him?
Air Transport Association of Canada uses the US Homeland Security no-fly selectee list to screen passengers even on domestic flights from one point in Canada to another. They do this despite Transport Canada's statement that there is no requirement for them to do so. There are reportedly 70,000 people on that list.

In his report, Justice O'Connor "recommends the RCMP and CSIS review their policies governing how they supply information to foreign governments with questionable human rights records."

Are you laughing yet? That's Stockwell Day's department.
It's a fine recommendation but what do you think the chances are that this government, this government with its "You're either with the US or against us" record, will consider the US of fucking A to be 1)a foreign country and 2)with a questionable human rights record?

Aggressive panhandlers

VANOC has squeegeed another 110 million from BC and the feds.
BC's Auditor General responded this week by suggesting the province buy itself a watchdog.
Obligingly, VANOC obtained one itself on Thursday and has decided to name it "Performance and Accountability Agreement", or "Good Dog!" for short.

The total projected Five Ring Circus budget now stands at 2.5 billion.
That's such a big number, it's hard to even imagine.
I find it helps to think of it as being five times what these were worth.

Stop the clock

Yesterday I was furious that there was no mention on CBC or in any newspaper of the Canada/US "deep integration" conference wrapping up today in Banff. One would have thought that the occasion of Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Canada would have rated at least a one-liner somewhere.

Nada. Ditto today.

Silly me. I should have been looking among the Anschluss fans :

"This is how the future of North America now promises to be written: not in a sweeping trade agreement on which elections will turn, but by the accretion of hundreds of incremental changes implemented by executive agencies, bureaucracies and regulators. "We've decided not to recommend any things that would require legislative changes," says Covais. "Because we won't get anywhere." "

"The guidance from the ministers was, 'tell us what we need to do and we'll make it happen,' " recalls Covais, who chairs the U.S. section of the council, which includes 10 CEOs of big companies like Wal-Mart, General Motors and Merck."

"Covais figures they've got less than two years of political will to make it happen. That's when the Bush administration exits, and "The clock will stop if the Harper minority government falls or a new government is elected." "

That's Ron Covais - President of the Americas for Lockheed Martin, a former Pentagon adviser to Dick Cheney and Chair of the US section of the North American Competitiveness Council created during the Harper/Bush Cancun meet in March.
He made these remarks following the last deep integration conference in Washington in June.
The objective of the current Banff conference is to draw up a list of recommendations for ministers of "Canada's New Government" for the reopening of parliament in October.

Stop the clock. Stop it any way you can.
Write to the CBC, national newspapers, your MLA.

It may be inevitable/necessary/natural that one day we will see a North America union with one coin, one flag, one defense perimeter, one education system, one health care system, one energy resource pool, etc.
Opposition to this idea in Canada is often spun as anti-Americanism by its corporate sponsors and their government flacks.
It isn't. It's anti-corporatism. And most Americans agree with us.

Stop the clock.

Update : Sept 20/06

Ok, this story has now finally made it into the mainstream press.

Here's Maude Barlow of Council of Canadians in today's Toronto Star.

Note how many of the details are still very much under wraps.

Affairs of state

Peter MacKay and Condi Rice share a gluey public display on Sept 13 involving Timbits?

~ The national media slathers itself in K-Y jelly.

Thomas d'Aquino, Stockwell Day, Wendy Dobson, John Manley, Anne McLellan, Gordon O'Connor, James Schlesinger, George Shultz, and Donald Freakin Rumsfeld meet at the Banff Springs Hotel Sept 12 - 14 for a conference on North American integration?

~ The national media rolls over and pretends to be asleep.

Among the Banff topics : "A Vision for North America", "A North American Energy Strategy", "Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration", "Opportunities for Security Cooperation".

Yeah, ok, but MacKay says Rice "loves the cool Atlantic breezes here in Nova Scotia, and she left the window open last night."

All the snooze that's printed, fits.

H/T to Susan Thompson at Vive le Canada.

Steve and Sandra and shell and pea

From the Globe&Mail :
"It's expected to take many months for U.S. Customs to return lumber duties to eligible companies and Ottawa will advance the refunds through the Export Development Corp."

From the EDC :
"Canada Account transactions are negotiated, executed and administered by EDC—but the risks under the Canada Account are assumed by the Government of Canada."

How I spent 9-11-2006

by Osama bin Laden

A weight distribution problem

How's that for a creepy statistic?
The obese now outnumber the hungry worldwide.

World Run Day 2006 is looking for local running clubs to join the Fight Hunger initiative of the U.N. World Food Programme, dedicated to ending child hunger by 2015.
Groups will run together on November 5, 2006.
We could certainly use the exercise.

Men are smarter than women

How much smarter? 3.63 IQ points smarter claims Dr. J. Philippe Rushton, the Andrew Dice Clay of Canadian academia.
Plus, as he has previously informed us, Asians are smarter than whites who are smarter than blacks.

The University of Western Ontario psychologist has his new study featured in today's Ottawa Citizen.
Anticipating some possible adverse reaction, he states :

''We have to find the truth about the normal distribution in society,'' said the professor, whose study is published in the September issue of the academic journal Intelligence. ''It's not right to simply say, 'it must be discrimination and don't dare say anything else.' One should really look at the facts.''

OK, let's look at some facts then, Dr. Rushton.
You are currently president of The Pioneer Fund, founded in 1937 by Nazi eugenicist Harry Laughlin and Nazi sterilization laws advocate Frederick Osborn.
Well that was a long time ago. What has The Pioneer Fund done on your watch?
Besides publishing 'Mankind Quarterly', edited by Roger Pearson, founder of the neo Nazi Northern League, that is.
Ah, still struggling with that whole concept of darkies, I see.
Plus there's this piece you published on March 2006 at VDare, the white supremacist website, praising the work of fellow nutbar racist Richard Lynn, who coincidentally serves on the board of directors of The Pioneer Fund.

Now I happen to agree with you, Dr. Rushton, that the parameters of scientific study should not be filtered through a lens of political correctness. I really do.
But you, Dr Rushton, whatever your academic qualifications, you are a nutter.
And that's a pretty strong a filter all by itself.

Steve and Sandra and Canada's New Governments

From a link at My Blahg.
Anyone else heard anything about Campbell cancelling the fall session?

The Gazetteer has a couple of ideas about it.

Tea with Osama

From CBC :

"An emergency debate in the House of Commons over Canada's foreign policy and role in Afghanistan is unlikely, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday.

MacKay chided Layton for his recent calls for Canada to try to negotiate peaceful solutions with the Taliban, as well as with Hezbollah, in the Middle East.
"Is it next going to be tea with Osama bin Laden?" MacKay asked. "This cannot happen.' "

You know, MacKay, if you could just give up the fantasy that you are a puppy and Bush has pork chops tied to his ankles, you would notice that some of our allies are already having tea with Osama.

Oh hell, just go read Dave at The Galloping Beaver, and especially the Tora Bora link.
Also Stephen at No BMD, eh?

Then go sign the petition. Support our troops. Bring em home.

CORRECTION : In the post above, I mistakenly attributed the phrase "tea with Osama" to Peter MacKay as reported by the CBC. I have subsequently learned from reading Joel at Proud To Be a Doofus that Mr Mackay in fact stole that phrase from him and did not give him credit for it. Joel reports that the CBC also failed to mention him, his website, or his trademarked phrase "the tea and bun set".
I apologize for the error.

The rabbi's slippery slope

Reacting to news of the firebombing of a Hasidic school in Montreal, the understandably shocked Rabbi Reuben Poupko states today :

"it's a fair question to wonder whether or not the gathering of 15,000 Quebecers under the flag of Hezbollah, unfortunately further legitimized by the presence of politicians, whether that creates an atmosphere where fanatics draw the conclusion that violence against Jews is somehow acceptable."

No, it isn't a fair question, Rabbi. It was just the unfortunate rhetoric of Israeli ambassador Alan Baker and it was dutifully reported in the press.
Maybe you missed the follow-up from Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe - not as widely reported :

"Mr. Duceppe said the Bloc made it clear to organizers before the march it would not tolerate any pro-Hezbollah demonstrators or flags or anti-Israel slogans in the march. The Bloc and many other participants did their best to get Hezbollah supporters to leave but they kept coming back into the throng even after police intervened.
Describing the group as a tiny minority, Mr. Duceppe said Mr. Baker did not realize he had singled out the Hezbollah supporters from the stage and denounced them in his speech.
Later, he denounced their presence and violence and called for disarmament by all sides of the conflict. Mr. Duceppe said he cannot be held responsible for the excesses of certain individuals.
"We had them expelled I can't tell you how many times," he said. "We told them we don't want any Hezbollah flags here. We also had them stop shouting certain slogans but some started up again. We can't have complete control of 15,000 people."

Nor should they have complete control. It is incumbent upon all Canadians to resist being frightened by their leaders into trading away hard-won freedoms for the illusion of security, an illusion that is only a pretext for furthering the power and control of those same leaders.
That goes for you too, Rabbi.

This week in Hitlertude

Suddenly everybody's posting pictures of cats that look like Charlie Chaplin.

From The Star - Suddenly everybody's a Nazi :

"Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said that comparing Hezbollah to the Nazis — as his caucus colleague Jason Kenney did this month — was a "straight historic analogy."
Thus, an Islamic denomination distinguished by its adherents' minority position on the acceptable principle of caliphic succession 1,400 years ago is equated with a 20th-century anti-communist totalitarian movement with its roots in European social Darwinism, pseudo-scientific race theories, and the long, ugly, and peculiarly Christian tradition of anti-Semitism.
As Mr. Day insisted, "The historic comparison is clear." "

Heh.

In other Hitler news, the pope's chief exorcist has called Harry Potter the devil and compared a Potter character to Stalin and Hitler, saying they were possessed by the devil :

"You can tell by their behavior and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons," said Amorth, who has performed 3000 exorcisms on behalf of a Sky Monster and is evidently completely lacking in any sense of irony.

UPDATE : Coming soon - Cats that look like Lenin.

Steve and Sandra and "Operation Enduring Heroin"

Dave at The Galloping Beaver covers "Operation Wash, Rinse, Repeat"
Update : "Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation rose a "staggering" 59 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and remove corrupt officials and police."

Corner Gasbag

Just picked this up from my mailbox. You probably got one too.
Yup, those are real quotes from the cast of Corner Gas, as you can read here and here.
Coincidentally, they are also a very good description of him as PM too.

Gosh I sure hope no one notices I photoshopped it a little.

OK, here's the original. It's funnier anyway.

H/T to Red Tory, whose posts on this sent me out to my mailbox.