Eat Or Be Eaten

Trendsters, social climbers, yuppies and all the other pseuds of Toronto rejoice: Sassafraz will rise from the ashes!

The Yorkville crowd has been in deep mourning ever since the restaurant they came to be seen in burned down, forcing them to find other eateries in which to be seen showing off their social superiority.

But with Sassafraz's return, they will all be safely corraled back into Yorkville, where they can do the rest of society no harm.

Short Drop, Sudden Stop

For those of you with a streak of morbid curiosity, Pandachute has an unedited video of Saddam Hussein's hanging here.

The production quality isn't all that good, but the star of the show played his role perfectly.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

The hanging of Saddam Hussein will not magically put an end to the violence and turmoil that engulfs much of Iraq.

That straw man argument against executing Hussein ought never have been taken seriously, because Hussein's hanging was never meant to be a panacea, and no one seriously thought that it would be.

Nor does it lack some sort of nebulous legitimacy under international law, simply because the bien pensants of our day fear only this one form of death.

Hussein was accused, tried, defended, and ultimately judged by his own, for the crimes committed against his own.

In any event, his trial was not a mere trial of a common criminal, and to reduce it to such would reduce the horror and magnitude of the man's crimes against humanity.

His hanging was necessary to remove him as a symbol of further resistance and the possibility that he might be restored to power, to tyrannize his people further.

Some crimes are so great that the mere technical application of legal principle and process cannot adequately punish them.

His trial cannot be judged against the standards of ordinary criminal justice, because his were no ordinary crimes, he no ordinary criminal.

In that sense, his execution was inadequate, but the most that human justice can do to punish him.

Now he faces perfect justice.

Lament For A Tyrant

As Saddam Hussein faces a much-deserved hanging at dawn tomorrow in Baghdad, the commenters on the Globe and Mail website have begun mourning for the fallen tyrant:

adam mateyko from calgarycalgary, Canada writes: While he might be a hated dictator, the trial was not held under international courts jurisdiction; and in itself is a war crime. Victors justice is not justice, it is a lynching.... good ole Texas style. More like revenge by Bush for his straying from the list of 'good dictators' that the US has kept on their payrolls in the past, and even today.

....

Barrie Collins from Long Sault, ON, Canada writes: So now the US and their appointed Iraquislings are going to execute the only man who had a hope in hell of bringing the chaos in Iraq to a halt. Yes, I know he was a tyrant, but I'd bet he was responsible for far less Iraqui (and American) deaths than have occurred since the illegal US invasion. It will need a strong hand to restore any semblance of order in that country, and it appears there is nobody of Hussein's stature among the current 'regime' to do this. Tito kept a bunch of warring factions apart in Jugoslavia, and Hussein did the same thing in Iraq. His execution will only exacerbate an already deteriorating situation.

....

Asif Hossain from Toronto, Canada writes: The Americans will miss the good old days of a moderate Iraq once this murder takes place. The extremist Sunnis, who despised Saddam Hussein for not being allowed to operate out of Iraq, will use this secular leader's hanging as the biggest recruiting tool in the history of freelance terror. This weekend will prove to be the lowest point (if it was possible to go any lower) of American foreign policy.

Of course, many of the commenters are more careful to preface their remarks with a perfunctory condemnation of Hussein's atrocities before demanding that George Bush hang alongside him.

Tyranny will always find its apologists in the free world. No doubt the Globe and Mail commenters would have damned the Nuremburg trials for not trying and hanging Churchill and Roosevelt as well.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Myriam?

Given the criminal propensities of certain characters who surrounded the previous regime, Myriam Bedard's claims that she was being harassed over her minor role as an Adscam whistleblower might have some credence.

Might, if she weren't a complete fruit loop under the thumb of an Iranian con man who's done everything to control her except stuff her in a burqa:

Former Canadian Olympian Myriam Bedard is "lucid and sharp" and deserves protection from the U.S. government after being persecuted and spied on over her revelations in Canada's sponsorship scandal, her lawyer said Thursday.

Kevin McCants refuted suggestions that Bedard is unhinged amid a bitter cross-border custody case that landed her in jail and a bizarre U.S. tour with partner Nima Mazhari seeking help for what they call a conspiracy against them in Canada.

"She's as sharp and sober as any federal judge," said McCants, who will represent Bedard at a Baltimore court hearing Friday to determine whether she'll stay in jail pending extradition proceedings.

"She was involved in a political scandal. There were a lot of people who had an axe to grind and they were trying to belittle her. There's a lot going on," said McCants.

He contends Bedard was spied on after she raised questions about inflated payments to Quebec ad firms in the sponsorship scandal and also faced frivolous lawsuits.

"She did the right thing. She blew the whistle. She feels as if she's been treated coldly (by the Canadian government)," he said.

"She should be entitled to some type of protection from the U.S. government."

Of all of the parties involved, however, only one of them understands the real problem here:

(Jean) Paquet complained to Canadian authorities because he feared Bedard and Mazhari would flee with the girl to Iran from the United States to escape his legal woes, said McCants.

Canada submitted an urgent request to the U.S. for Bedard's arrest and extradition on Dec. 5.

"That's the real basis of it all," he said. "Her new husband is Iranian and (Paquet) didn't want to risk her going to Iran and never seeing his daughter again."

Which may have been Mazhari's plan all along. And Bedard would be facing a far worse captivity than a Maryland jail cell.

Source: National Post

NIMBY Beach

The champagne socialists who populate the Beach speak often of their concern for the starving poor of this city. Heaven forfend, however, that they should actually have to see any of them:

A Toronto church's plan to feed and house 12 homeless people one night a week during the worst of the winter has been put on hold after residents of a tony Beach enclave threatened it with a legal injunction.

As part of the Out of the Cold program, which is run in churches and synagogues across Toronto, the temporary shelter was to have opened Jan. 8 at St. Aidan's Anglican Church on Silver Birch Ave., at Queen St. E.

But the three-month program has been delayed until at least Jan. 16, when a community meeting will be held to discuss details and other potential sites.

....

Toronto lawyer Peter Silverberg, who has acted for the objecting Beach residents, denies they were motivated by NIMBYism in threatening the church with legal action.

He said they were concerned about having been given scant opportunity for consultation and whether the program provided the best use of limited shelter resources.

"The program itself is very praiseworthy, although it might be questioned on the level of whether or not this is the best way to use ... very limited resources to look after this type of thing."

Silverberg, who would not say how many residents objected, said there might be better sites in the Beach for the shelter but he believes they were never examined.

Better sites, as in none. The sight of the indigent is not one the yuppies want to see as they traipse along Queen Street East to their favourite bistros and boutiques.

Source: Toronto Star

Infamous Last Words

Saddam Hussein's farewell letter:

I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.

Richard Nixon's farewell speech:

Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

Hussein: The Final Countdown

Mark January 27, 2007 on your calendar.

Saddam Hussein will hang that day, if not sooner.

This is how the death penalty should be carried out: with due speed and dispatch.

No endless appeals on abstruse technical grounds, no candlelight vigils outside the prison walls, no agonizing over the relative humaneness of the various methods.

Just hang him and throw his body to the vultures.

Gerald Ford, 1913-2006

Gerald Ford never sought to be President of the United States. Only an unusual confluence of circumstances--the resignation of Spiro Agnew from the Vice Presidency in disgrace, followed by Richard Nixon's resignation in greater disgrace following Watergate--brought Ford from leadership in Congress to the White House.

His presidency was overshadowed by his decision to close the books on Watergate by pardoning Richard Nixon, the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam and its fall to the Communists, and the inflation and energy crises that produced the greatest recession since the Great Depression.

He barely beat back a challenge from Ronald Reagan within his own party in 1976, yet came within an inch of defeating Jimmy Carter regardless.

Perhaps no one could have survived such an inauspicious and difficult period politically.

But it is to Gerald Ford's credit that he was able to restore respect and order to the office in the face of all those troubles.

Source: Washington Post

Ethiopia On The March

The Kingdom of Prester John is currently laying waste to the armies of the heathen Mohammedans who have seized control Somalia:

Somalia's Islamists are in full retreat after Ethiopian airstrikes and a ground offensive that have killed up to 1,000 of the religious movement's fighters, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday.

"A joint Somali government and Ethiopian force has broken the back of the international terrorist forces... These forces are in full retreat," Meles told reporters in Addis Ababa, adding that up to 1,000 Islamist fighters had been killed.

"A few are Somali but the majority are foreigners," he said of the dead.

Addis Ababa has vowed to protect Somalia's weak interim government from rival Islamists based in Mogadishu. A week of artillery and mortar duels between the two sides has spiralled into open war that both sides say has killed hundreds.

Meles said most fighters of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had fled to their home areas. He said Ethiopian forces were now hunting down troops from his arch-foe Eritrea, which he accuses of supporting the Islamists.

"The only forces we are pursuing are Eritreans who are hiding behind the skirts of Somali women, and terrorist mujahideen," Meles said.

The Western media has usually portrayed Ethiopia as a destitute land of famine and desert, but have not until now recalled that Ethiopia is the world's second-oldest officially Christian nation (since 316; only Armenia has been officially Christian for longer).

Ethiopia has had centuries of history to remind them of the nature of their enemy in Somalia; unlike most Western nations, they do not hesitate to call it a war.

Source: Reuters

Merry Christmas

And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child.

And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days were accomplished, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and keeping the night watches over their flock. And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone round about them; and they feared with a great fear. 10 And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people:


For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will. And it came to pass, after the angels departed from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath shewed to us.

And they came with haste; and they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. And seeing, they understood of the word that had been spoken to them concerning this child. And all that heard, wondered; and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb.

--Luke 2:1-21

Flattened

The life story of Rachel Corrie will not be playing on stage in Toronto after all:

The Canadian Stage Company is no longer considering staging a controversial play about an activist killed in Israel.

Can Stage will not produce My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play about a young American killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while protesting in the Gaza Strip.

Artistic producer Martin Bragg yesterday denied reports the play was ever officially part of its upcoming season. The play was one of many on a preliminary list that was subject to change, he said.

Mr. Bragg said he was originally interested in the play based on its script. He said he changed his mind when he saw a production of it in New York.

In a theatre that was just one-third full, the audience wasn't engaged during the show and showed little enthusiasm for the production.

"The play wasn't striking a chord," he said. "Did the issue strike a chord? Absolutely. But the play wasn't."

Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. Girl goes to Gaza. Girl meets bulldozer. The end. What a story.

Source: National Post

The Young Pretender's Return

Bonnie Prince Justin, the great hope of Canada's own modern-day Jacobite movement, is ready to take back the throne that his partisans claim is rightfully his:

Justin Trudeau is poised to leap into federal politics and seek a seat in Parliament next election, according to a media report.

Maclean's magazine says the son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau suggested in an interview that he would make an announcement after Christmas about a possible run.

....

It quotes Gerald Butts, a close friend the magazine describes as being "tasked with taking control of Trudeau's slip," saying Mr. Trudeau, 35, wanted to discuss the timing of the announcement with new Liberal leader Stephane Dion to make sure it complemented party strategy.

"I think he's pretty much there," Mr. Butts is quoted as saying. "He just doesn't want a speculative story published before he's ready."

Too late.

It appears the magazine took those comments and Mr. Trudeau's earlier hints as proof he had made up his mind. Mr. Trudeau was noncommittal in a later interview with Maclean's.

If Trudeau runs, Stephane Dion will end up running an entire campaign in his shadow. The media will be all over Justin in an attempt to recreate Trudeaumania. His every campaign presence and utterance will be recorded and reported far and wide.

The press will turn to him to offer thoughtful commentary about his party's policies and the maintenance or restoration of his father's legacy.

The subtext will be clear--here is the once and future king, speaking to his future subjects.

Stephane Dion's successor is about to be brought into the camp.

Are you ready for Trudeaumania II?

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Bedard Busted

Myriam Bedard has been arrested in Maryland for abducting her daughter in violation of a custody agreement with her ex-husband.

Her arrest, oddly enough, might be a happy ending for her and her daughter.

At least it has prevented her Iranian husband from taking them into Iran, into a far more cruel captivity.

Source: CTV

Night Hunter

Treaties are made and broken in the rest of the world as circumstances change and the parties thereto find more advantage in violating them than honouring them; sometimes they just lapse into desuetude because the parties no longer exist.

But almost alone in all the world, treaties with the Indians remain somehow immune to the usual fates of treaties: somehow they must continue to be honoured, to the letter, without room for renegotiation or even tacit disregard, no matter how irrelevant or impractical they have become.

Most Indians don't derive their sustenance from the land anymore, but the screams of cultural genocide go up whenever anyone suggests modifying or extinguishing unlimited hunting and fishing rights.

Now, in the year 2006, the Supreme Court has recognized the right of some of them to hunt at night:

A B.C. aboriginal band won the right to hunt at night in a divided Supreme Court of Canada ruling yesterday that included a rebuke from the dissenting judges that public safety should not take a backseat to treaty rights.

....

The decision overturned the conviction of two Vancouver Island aboriginals who belong to the Tsartlip First Nation, Ivan Morris and Carl Olsen, who were caught a decade ago in a sting operation.

They had lost their case every step of the way, but they convinced the Supreme Court majority they should be able to hunt with rifles in the dark, with the aid of a lamp, because their ancestors had engaged in the practice using torches and bows and arrows.

"British Columbia is a very large province, and it cannot plausibly be said that a night hunt with illumination is unsafe everywhere and in all circumstances," said the majority decision, co-authored by justices Marie Deschamps and Rosalie Abella.

"It applies without exception to the whole province, including the most northern regions where hours of daylight are limited in the winter months and populated areas are few and far between."

The ruling said treaty rights must be adapted to modern times and that "hunting with a rifle and ammunition is the current form of an evolving right whose origins were hunting with a bow and arrow."

The minority judgment, penned by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Morris Fish, countered that courts have consistently found that night hunting "inherently involves an unacceptable and elevated risk to the public."

They argued that the 1852 treaty in question was never intended to permit a practice that is dangerous.

Also, aboriginals could still be charged with dangerous hunting under B.C.'s Wildlife Act, but it would be up to the Crown to prove that the activity in question was unsafe.

As long as this continued insistence on treaty rights continues, Indians will be locked in an ultimately futile struggle to preserve a way of life that elsewhere has passed into history.

Source: National Post

The Great Turkmenbashi, RIP

The great dictator of Turkmenistan, Sapurmurat Niyazov, may have been no less cruel towards his opponents and dissenters than most tyrants, and certainly no less addicted to his own cult of personality.

But for all that, his regime provided plenty of unintentional comedy.

Who else but the great Turkmenbashi would have renamed the months of the calendar for himself and his family?

Only the great Turkmenbashi could have decreed that old age begins at 85.

Or command the people to celebrate a holiday to honour the muskmelon.

And surely one can understand why the great Turkmenbashi required people to study the philosophy in his great Rukhnama to pass a driving test.

(Well, can ants united defeat a tiger or a lion? Can they?)

The great Turkmenbashi was immortal until the day he died, and thus having left no declared successor, his epigoni will fight fiercely to seize his vacant throne. But none of them will provide the entertainment value of the great Turkmenbashi.

The Search For Myriam

The search for Myriam Bedard, her daughter, and her Iranian husband, is now going worldwide with Interpol's help.

Considering that Nima Mazhari is himself facing trial on theft charges for allegedly stealing $100,000 worth of paintings from a painter he shared a studio with, do you think he's going to surface with Bedard and her daughter any time soon?

If Mazhari wants to avoid justice for himself and keep his control over Myriam and Maude, where better place for him to go than back to Iran, safe from extradition and where he can keep them under his thumb with impunity?

If they're in Iran, she and her daughter won't be coming out for a long time, if ever.

Source: Toronto Star

Big Owe

The most enduring legacy of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, besides the crumbling architectural embarrassment of Olympic Stadium, has been the $1.5 billion debt that Jean Drapeau swore up and down would never be incurred.

It's been anyone's guess which would disappear first, and surprisingly, it's the debt:

Officials from the Olympic Installations Board, which oversees the stadium, have confirmed that the last payment was made in mid-November, three decades after the world descended on Montreal for the Games.

The astronomical cost included the stadium, the Olympic village, a post-modern apartment building complex, a sports recreation complex, outdoor facilities, parking and the Vélodrome, which has since been refurbished as the Biodome.

Much of the debt was serviced through a special tax on tobacco.

Officials had estimated the debt would be cleared by September 2006, but the smoking ban introduced in May slowed down tobacco sales in the province, according to the Canadian Press.

Two weeks of games, a generation of debt, and Montreal's decline still continues apace.

The Montreal Olympics stand as a reminder that getting the big games or the pro team doesn't bring economic salvation.

Source: CBC

Rona Out

A three-way cabinet shuffle is in the works: Rona Ambrose will leave Environment for Intergovernmental Affairs, replacing Peter Van Loan who will get Indian Affairs as Jim Prentice goes off to Environment.

Rona Ambrose was always a better fit for the constitutional and federal-provincial portfolio; besides, Jim Prentice has been a far better troubleshooter for the Cabinet than he's being given credit for.

Prentice has his work cut out for him: the high priests of the environmental movement will burn anyone at the stake who questions one word of Kyoto. Rona Ambrose couldn't stand up to them. But Prentice, having succesfully killed the Kelowna bribes for the chiefs accords, has shown no fear in attacking political orthodoxies.

Source: Globe and Mail

Malaysian Village People

They say that same-sex disco dancing is done to protect the honour and chastity of Malaysian Muslim women. Just like it is on Church & Wellesley.