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Opinionated Ranter - The Adventures of Being Awesome...

 
I am but a man trying to live the dream. This is how I see the world...

Opinionated Ranter - April 2007

RIGHTS

Writing articles on a site such as this really is a thankless job. That's why I'm thankful it's not my job. I do it for fun.

Some people will accuse you of not having ‘journalistic integrity'. That's true of most of the writers here, or any other site you might want to visit. These writers are not journalists. They are not columnists. They are reporters in the very strictest sense of the word. They're ordinary people who put out their view of or on a subject. Some will chastise you for using a newspaper article or news report for the source of your information. "Don't believe everything you read," they will say. Fair enough. But they ignore you when you say you read several articles on the same topic, both liberal and conservative, and are clever enough to make an educated decision as to which side you take. Some don't believe that you don't sit in front of the computer all day with nothing else to do but check, check again and then re-check all and every source known to mankind before you start typing.


Some people will follow you writings for a long time and still not see a common thread in some articles. Some writers go off on politics while others rail against religion. Some writers offer good medicinal advice and others give helpful household tips. Some write about cars or must visit museums, others about the latest fashion craze or the lunatics running freely through the streets of Hollywood. Some fixate on American Idol and others attack the glo-bull warming scare. Even though many writers will latch onto a certain theme, they do, generally, tend to disperse other articles in the meantime to keep interest up. Everyone will eventually get bored with reading the same old, same old day after day.

This concept becomes difficult for some readers as they tend to lose track of what has been said in the past compared to what might be said today. I know that I have harped on certain subjects in the past, but trying to stay away from being typecast, I do try to intersperse my writing with subjects that may seem to come from the far away left field. I write under the name of Youranter to try to get across the idea that I am an equal opportunity dissident about whatever happens to piss me off on any given day. Write about it, let me read it and I'll be the first one to give an opinion. It's a first off people. I research what I have to, but most things I trust to the journalists and columnists to have done their homework.


Some comments I've received on my articles show me that the reader, like a pit bull, will not give up on the particular subject I've written about. Others, with a small explanation, do get it and let it go. I suppose I had better hone my writing skills to make it more clear to those who don't get it.

An underlying theme to many of my articles has been the erosion of our rights under our present provincial government. Not being a dog owner, I have written about the lunacy of branding every dog you don't happen to like as a pit bull and having the breed banned. I told how the man responsible for this asinine law couldn't pick out a pit bull from a line up presented to him and just went ahead and banned anything that he thought fit the description of how they should look. I pointed out that some bull terriers are not pit bull terriers and have been excluded from such bans elsewhere. I suppose I should have included the story of the woman who had half her face ripped of by her loyal pet and called for a ban of that breed too. It happened to be a Golden Retriever, one of the first breeds considered safe when you have children in the house. But I would have heard about how rare an attack like that is. Well so are attacks by bull terriers. They just get worse press and so must be banished forever.

I've written about the smoking ban now in effect here in Ontario. And I know how happy the non-smokers are about this. They made a great hue and cry about finally being able to out for an evening without coming home smelling of smoke. They said there would be more than enough of them taking advantage of this new law to more than make up for the business lost due to smokers being banned. Tell that to the bars and restaurants that have or are going bankrupt. Tell that to the bars and restaurants that have laid off 30% of their staff, trying to stay solvent. Tell me how this ban has evolved from not smoking in public buildings to the point where it looks like they'll try to ban you smoking in your own home. Tell me how this is a fair law when you can't even smoke in the privacy of your own car if you are on certain hospital grounds.

I've written about our Premier delisting many services from our health care insurance and then having the nerve to charge us an outrageous tax for the privilege of having to pay for these services out of pocket. Some say that cataract surgery normally happens when a person passes the age of 65, when it is again covered. Perhaps. But why then would the government ‘give' a city almost $4 million to cover the costs of this surgery? Isn't it possible that the beginnings of cataracts could be caught by regular visits to the eye doctor, be treated and maybe save the expense of having to do surgery later? Knee and hip replacement surgeries have an unbelievably long wait time before they are taken care of. The government has done nothing to reduce those wait times. Is it not possible that visits to a chiropractor could avoid that person having to undergo an operation in the future? Chiropractic services were delisted as well as eye exams.

These are all, apparently, minor beefs that don't stack up to the more important issues that some people seem to have. If it doesn't affect them directly, they are more than happy to see their rights eroded to the point where, when it does finally affect them directly, they will wonder how things ever got so bad. They are happy to worship where and when they want, marry who they wish and attend the school of their choice. All noble thoughts, but maybe a bit self-serving. They seem to forget that there are tough men and women out there doing a lot of dirty work to ensure those rights are not taken away from them. They sleep safely in their warm beds every night, proud of the fact they are pacifists. One must wonder when those rights are taken away from them just how far their pacifism will take them. It didn't seem to work for Neville Chamberlain and there were certainly a lot of pacifists around at that time.

Not to make too big a deal out of it, but you have to watch the enemy within as well as the one who does, or tries to do, more grievous to you and your family. And that's the message I've tried to get through. As I said before, I am not a dog owner. But to put it into terms that might be easier for some to understand, let me try it this way.

A toy poodle is basically a yappy little dog that is more annoying than anything else. They will, however, nip at your ankles given a chance. The size of the dog dictates that it will be a long while before he ever eats you completely. This compares to the small, petty rights that are being taken from us by our own government. They will start with the small things that they think no one cares about. Now, when that toy poodle finally gets you down, in walks a pit bull to finish you off in a hurry. This compares to the government, seeing the success they've had in the past, taking away your right to worship, to marry whomever you want, to go to the school of your choice and perhaps even to tell you what language you are to use from this date forward. And the pacifists will wonder how it all came about.

Talk to any veteran and you will meet someone who truly hates war and violence. They will be the first to tell you there must be a peaceful solution to the problems that society faces on a daily basis. They also know that sometimes there is no other solution than to stand up and fight. Non- smokers sign petitions against draconian anti-smoking laws because they see freedom of choice being taken away. Pet-less people sign petitions against banning certain breeds of dogs because they know the freedom of choice is being taken away. An ever growing number of people getting on in years sign petitions to keep preventive medical procedures listed rather than face future, more painful procedures because they know the freedom of choice is being taken away.

Maybe I do rant against some petty items in some people's eyes. But if it doesn't start at the ‘small, petty' items, where will it lead? And when will it end? Didn't all dictators start out ‘liberating' their people? I don't know anyone who wants to live under a dictatorship. But the pacifists are too blind to see that the erosion of our rights is leading us down the path to totalitarian government. It is not without just cause that liberalism is equated with left wing politics. We won't have revolutions like they did in Bolivia or Cuba, but sure as hell if the liberal left wing has its way and is allowed to continue in its quest to take away our rights, we will end up in the same social spectrum as those countries.
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SCANDAL?

I'm a bit confused. Our government is under pressure from the opposition parties for having our forces in Afghanistan turn captured detainees over to Afghan officials for imprisonment. They claim the detainees are being tortured and abused and that Canada should be monitoring the situation more closely. Human rights activists are up in arms about this, holding Canadians to a standard they are not applying to the Afghans. The Liberals, who signed us up to go there in the first place as a peacemaking force, are now trying their best to have our forces return to a peacekeeping role.

I don't know if the detainees are being tortured or not. I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned, it's none of our business. I would be upset if some country came here and told us we were treating our prisoners in an unfair way. If you commit a crime anywhere in the world and get sent back here, you become our responsibility and we will treat you the way we see fit. If you happen to be in our country and capture a criminal, you turn him over to us, not apply your own law to that person. Heaven knows the number of people we behead would skyrocket. The detainees are, for the most part, Afghans and should be subject to the laws of that country.

Why in the world are the Liberals more concerned with the treatment of those people than they are about the safety and welfare of our own troops? Are the human rights activists actually admitting that third world countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or Iraq are not as civilized as we are because of the way they may treat their prisoners? It wasn't too long ago that they were all shouting we had no right to be there in the first place and trying to bring them out of their 7th century thinking was a futile exercise. But now, suddenly, we have to treat the prisoners in a humane, 21st century way. Help me out here. Am I the only one who sees the hypocrisy of this line of thinking?

And just for the fun of it, what do the cut and runners think will happen if, as they want us to do, we abandon Afghanistan at this point? Or if the Americans left Iraq tomorrow? I'm sure in their little minds they would think everything is just hunky-dory and the non-existent Islamic terrorists would all sit down, have a good laugh about the whole thing and start handing out some of the soft sentences our left wing nuts are so fond of.

Yeah, right. There is no scandal to be had here. Plenty of political posturing though.
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WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?

My friend, Jim Stillman, recently wrote an article about apologies and reparations for all the terrible things done to people in the past. You know, he made some good points. I followed it up with my own article some time later and heard a few comments about it. But it really came to the forefront a few days ago when I read an article in the National Post on this very subject.

Susan Martinuk wonders if we even know what an apology is any more. Though pertaining to one particular subject, I think it can be equally applied to every injustice, real or imagined, that has taken place in the past.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said that there will be no apology to survivors of native residential schools. Sounds pretty harsh, doesn't it? The invading white man ripped little Indian kids from their homes and sent them to schools to slap a democracy and civilization on them, all in the name of making them conform to the white European way of thinking. Many of these children were abused at these schools, physically, mentally and sexually in some cases. But Prentice says he will not apologize for any of it.

Phil Fontaine, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, in a National Post column dated April 3, 2007 claimed that Ottawa's refusal to apologize was akin to "Holocaust denial." He said that the government's position "diminishes and discredits the lives of those who experienced the pain and suffering of residential schools." One can only assume the lives of these children are worth nothing without an apology. However, Fontaine, in a comment made in December of 2006, said that he believed "we have in this agreement recognition that harm was done to our people and those who harmed our people are prepared to accept their responsibility." In his acceptance of the 1998 Statement of Reconciliation that was issued by the then-governing Liberals, he was quite willing to accept the statement as an apology, saying, "It took (the government) some courage to take this historic step, to break with the past and to apologize for the historic wrongs and injustices committed against our people. It is therefore a great honour for me, on behalf of the First Nations, to accept the apology of the government and people of Canada." So here he is, seven years later, demanding an apology for one that he has already accepted. Could it be he's now looking for money?

In the accepted Statement of Reconciliation, the government of Canada acknowledged "the role it played in the development and administration of residential schools." The government also made amends by providing $350-million for a comprehensive "healing strategy to assist individuals and communities in dealing with the consequences of this sad era of our history." That would seem to cover it as far as I am concerned. Maybe Fontaine is just looking for even more money. The SOR stated that, "We must ensure that the mistakes which marked our past relationship are not repeated. To those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we are deeply sorry." Sure sounds like an apology to me.

However, all this document did was to open the door to a flood of lawsuits that has occupied the government ever since. Billions of taxpayer dollars will go to compensation, and billions more have already been paid to sustain a bureaucracy to deal with the lawsuits. The focus is now on ratifying a $2-billion compensation package that will apparently compensate every ex-student, not just those who suffered abuse. Many churches (the institutions that actually ran the schools) have made formal apologies and gone to the brink of bankruptcy to pay compensation. So if apologies have been made, and large sums have been paid out for native healing, why is Fontaine still crying out for an apology? Obviously, compensation hasn't brought healing and political/legal solutions haven't taken away the bitterness. More apologies won't do the trick.

Sorry isn't such a hard word to say. It seems it is a hard word for the likes of Fontaine to accept. When the apology seems to go stale, in the eyes of the offended, reparations can't be too far behind. And they will cost a bundle.

Sources: Susan Martinuk 'Sorry' National Post
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MORE GLO-BULL WARNINGS

We all know what a hypocrite Al Gore is with his glo-bull warming warning that the sky will fall upon us as of last Wednesday if we don't do something about it today. Even though his own president signed the Kyoto Accord, it was done with the proviso that it was non-binding, pending ratification of the House and Senate in the USA, Gore went right ahead and committed the States to the Accord. A little egg on the face here, Al. It was never put before the House or Senate for ratification and therefore remains non-binding.

On this side of the border, Suzuki has taken a page from Gore's imaginary world and says, on the one hand, "First of all, let's stop listening to the goddamn economists." Okay, we'll do that Dave. But what comes next? Oh, this little gem, ‘Suzuki added former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern recently concluded in a report for the British government that fighting climate change would only cost the economy about 1% annually, while the impact of global warming could cause the economy to shrink by up to 20% annually, doing more damage than the two world wars combined. "We will plunge into a depression, the likes of which we have never seen." I'm confused. First we have to stop listening to the economists and then they are the ones who know all about glo-bull warming. Someone explain this to me please


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EVEN EASIER

"Your so called fundamentalist Islamic enemy doesn't exist."

God, I love that line. It really makes doing this so much fun. I haven't heard from the idiot who sent it to me for a while. I imagine he's kicking himself for being such a nitwit to write it in the first place


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DIM BULBS

By now the word must be out. Energy Minister Dwight Duncan has come out with a brilliant idea of how to make the world a greener place to live. He plans to outlaw incandescent light bulbs by the year 2012 and replace them all with flourescent bulbs. There are just a few snags in this idiotic scheme.

First of all, judging from the Liberals track record so far, come next election, October 2007, they are going to be booting into a time zone closer to India's than ours. An admittedly unscientific poll released the other day showed the Conservatives ahead with 62% of the decided vote and the Liberals sitting on 17%. Duncan hasn't done much research into this project as he knows he's probably headed for the unemployment line rather than back to the office and perks he enjoys today


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TOO EASY

"Your so called fundamentalist Islamic enemy doesn't exist"

Okay, so we've established the fact that an organization such as that run by so-called fundamentalist Islamic's, such as al-Qaida simply don't exist. I for one know this is true, because a Muslim wrote me to wake me up to this fact. Another commenter apparently agrees, having sent me this gem, "9/11 was an inside job. PNAC pulled 9 11! (sic) They said they would and then they did,. are you suprised? (sic) MOST people know this by now, when will your closed little childish mind open up enoph (sic) to smell the EMPIRE we live in and just admit it


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YA GOTTA LUV IT

"Your so called fundamentalist Islamic enemy doesn't exist."

So said a commenter on one of my recent articles. I just have to laugh at his denial of the real world. I suppose that if you hide in a cubicle all day trying to get kiddies to play games with you, you don't really get a chance to visit reality all that often, but like they say, different strokes for different folks


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TERROR SUSPECTS

I caught a news item the other day that might be of interest. It seems Issam al Yamani is, as described by the government, a retired terrorist or possibly a terrorist sleeper cell. Why is this important, you ask? Well, stick around to find out.

The gentleman in question has won yet another chance to stay in Canada after a judge ruled that Stockwell Day, the Public Safety Minister, may have ignored the man's plea that he has renounced violence. Maybe against his family. As Don Lee wrote me, "There are no atheists in a foxhole", I'm sure every prisoner in jail has found Jesus and every terrorist will renounce violence when it looks like they'll be sent back to whatever cave they crawled out of to reign terror on the rest of the world


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A DIFFERENCE

I recently wrote an article entitled ‘Journalism'. As I've said so many times in the past, some people just don't know how to read. One comment I had stated, "Your so called fundamentalist Islamic enemy doesn't exist." I'm not sure what planet this guy is living on and it's such a ridiculous statement that it isn't worth replying to. However, just to try to show him the world is not encapsulated in his little computer cubicle, or his little mind for that matter, I offer the following.

The other day, in Turkey, assailants tied up three people at a publishing house that distributes Bibles in Turkey and then slit their throats. Now, anyone with a clear mind can see this is not the work of fundamentalist Islamics. However, I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that it was Christians, Jews, Buddhists or Sikhs that did it. One more time for the reading challenged, not all Muslims or Islamists are terrorists, so there is no need to take this personally. Unless, of course, you support terrorism. I purposely typed that slowly so that it might finally sink in to those who have to read slowly, or have it read to them


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GUNS

S L Bradish, in the wake of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, wrote about guns and whether or not teachers should be able to carry them in a classroom. As always, this has created some controversy and so it should. Bradish's point is that guns should be permitted to be carried by teachers and if it were allowed, perhaps the death toll would have been a lot lower.

This whole story is still unfolding, so it is impossible to say just what should have been done to prevent the whole mess. Monday morning quarterbacks are all over themselves on both sides of the coin. Yes, teachers should carry weapons vs no, teachers can go off just the same as their students. With the jury still out on this one, let's take a look at some facts


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WHAT A COUNTRY

Do I live in a great country or what? My wife and I used to go to the local racetrack once a week to donate some money to their slot machines. Keeping track of it over the years, we were down a grand total of $250.00, which ain't too shabby for 3 ½ years worth of entertainment. When the province banned smoking, we quit going. Apparently a lot of Americans did too. So much so that the racetrack is pulling out all the stops in trying to convince people to come back.

The latest ploy is to send out tickets to regular customers that have varying cash values which can be redeemed at the slots in the hope you'll leave the money there. My wife got a voucher for $15.00 and mine was for $50.00. It doesn't take a genius to figure out we headed back


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MORE ON SPRUCEDALE

Apparently I don't know what I'm talking about. I've done a few articles on the kiddie jail called Sprucedale Detention Centre and was raked for not knowing it contains youngsters who simply made minor mistakes and now have to do time behind bars. How silly of me.

The whole thing started when I read an article about one mother's fight to have a 21 year old inmate transferred from this facility to one where he would actually have to do hard time for his crime


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STUDY YOUR HISTORY

The liberal left wing never ceases to amaze when it comes to dealing with history. If they're not re-writing it, they simply ignore it. The adage of learning from one's mistakes seems to be completely lost on them. The cut and runners of today have their eyes focused on Iraq and Afghanistan and how quickly we can desert the people of those nations and bring our armed forces home. Perhaps it is time to have a bit of a refresher course.

The war in Iraq just passed its 4th anniversary. The war in Afghanistan has gone on longer. Perhaps this is why the Americans are so upset. They didn't join WW II until 1941 and by 1945 it was all over. In WW I, they didn't get involved until 1917 and by 1918 that war was over. No one will find fault for the Americans coming to the party late and saving the Allies, but the point is that the Americans have a short memory and have not, in recent times, been exposed to any conflict that lasted this long. The Viet Nam War was a bit different in that it was an undeclared war and so we won't discuss it here


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IDIOCY

Just when the Green Party almost had me convinced they were more than a one issue party, they work overtime to dispel that notion. Elizabeth May, leader of the party, goes into the backroom with Stephane Dion, leader of the federal Liberals, and cuts a deal for each of them to keep a riding free for the other to try to gain a seat in Parliament in the upcoming federal election. The Green Party is composed of tree huggers of the highest caliber and truly believe in Kyoto. Dion used to be the environment minister in the last government, and did nothing to implement the Kyoto Accord during the 13 years they had a chance. Dion is running as the "Man With The Solutions To Glo-bull Warming' and thinks this move will give him some credence.

But May has bigger problems on her plate than cosying up to Dion. Way out west in Vancouver, La-La Land, she is fielding a candidate who seems more than a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Kevin Potvin is a 9/11 denier who subscribes to the conspiracy theories so beloved by liberals


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JOURNALISM

I have been accused in the past of being a poor journalist. Not because I don't make money at it, but because some dim bulbs insist I am one and do the job poorly. I never claimed to be one, but these fools show up every once in a while to take a strip out of me when they can't debate with a true journalist. Now that we have that out of the way, let's take a look at one who happens to be one of the few original thinkers in Canadian journalism, George Jonas.

Way back when, I started to get interested in politics and started reading Jonas' work. I might agree with him on about what he says 50% of the time, but I sure can't take away his ability to look at things in a different and new light. His worst habit is that he seems to tie everything into the Holocaust and proceeds to tell the reader how he and his family suffered and finally escaped the Nazis. Once you get past those two paragraphs, you're in for an enlightening read


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SOMETHING'S WRONG

Just when you think the justice system is headed in the right direction, they come back and slap you in the face with the fact that they are only a legal system.

British Columbia's appeal court reduced the sentence of a teenager who dragged a gas station attendant to a gruesome death over a tank of gas, ruling that the original sentence didn't properly account for his youth and his aboriginal background. I've written about two-tiered justice in the past, where the same crime committed by a woman and a man earned each of them a vastly different sentence. Now it seems we have three-tiered justice


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WATCH THIS GUY

Justice Coulter Osborne bears watching. He must strike fear into everyone who thinks ‘rehabilitation' is the only way to treat criminals. He'd be a good guy to have presiding over our young offenders who think that just because they might not be of legal age, they're entitled to do serious soft time.

Richard Boudreau was imprisoned more than 23 years ago for the bludgeoning to death of two teenage Sarnia girls, Kim Sauve, 15, and Shelley Brazeau, 16. Convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in these slayings, Boudreau has now applied for parole. In fairness to him, his sentence was life with no parole for 20 years and he has waited 4 years beyond that to make his first application. The hearing will be held sometime next month and the parents of Brazeau will be there having vowed to fight her killer's bid for parole. Sauve's parents, Bob and Sandy, have also said they will fight Boudreau's release, but as yet, have not been available for comment


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VIMY RIDGE

Today we mark the 90th anniversary of the Canadians storming and taking Vimy Ridge in WW I.

Much has been written about this and I'm not about to try to outdo anyone. However, to those veterans, and all those who came after, who fought for our freedom, our safety, our way of life, I do offer the following


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HARDSHIP

And the whiners just keep on coming.

Four Canadian terrorism suspects have been held in extreme isolation for almost a year. The four are among 18 men and boys from Toronto who were arrested in a blaze of national and international publicity last year. All were charged with various terrorism-related offences. In most of the cases, prosecutors asked for and were granted an order that forbids the co-accused from communicating with one another. And now they're crying about this. That order prompted the bosses at Maplehurst to lock up the dozen suspects, who did not get bail, in small isolation cells for more than 23 hours a day. Those conditions are now subject to a legal challenge based on the idea that solitary confinement amounts to cruel and unusual punishment


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WOMEN IN POLITICS

Just a quick question. Do we need more women in politics? Our Liberals want to keep men out of the race for seats, the NDP wants a quota or proportional representation system and the Conservatives are saying let the best candidate win. Any thoughts?
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SPRUCEDALE REVISITED

Every once in a while, you can hit ‘em out of the ballpark. It seems I've done that with an article I wrote back on March 12, entitled "Sprucedale". Now, almost a month later someone called ‘Anonymous' wants to push a pin into my balloon. Fat chance.

The article was about Moonie Ali and what happened to her son, Terrence, and his killer. Mrs. Ali never claimed her son was an angel. She did however claim he deserved justice. The killer in this case caught all sorts of breaks and at age 21 was still being held in the Sprucedale Youth Centre. This is a Club Med for wayward youths and Moonie wanted him moved to an adult facility to serve the rest of his sentence. Obviously, if he's 21 now, he can do some real time for the crime


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EVEN MORE ON THE SEAL HUNT

The East Coast seal hunt quietly opened the other day in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. That is, until Ms Rebecca Aldworth, of the Humane Society of the United States, opened her mouth. A bit of background here. Aldworth was banned from the hunt last year for interference. The rules at the time said that no one could get within 10 metres of the hunters. She chose to ignore that rule and ended up getting seal guts dumped on her head. Today, she is back with a vengeance. And her mouth is bigger than ever. In a move typical of a coward, she will not reveal her exact whereabouts except to say she is on the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. These animal rights activists know they face far more animosity from people living in small communities on the coast. They garner great sympathy from people in Saskatchewan and Europe, who know nothing about the hunt, as opposed to any they might get from the people actually engaged in the hunt for numerous, valid reasons. Last year, the humane society had difficulty getting helicopters refueled and, at one point, Aldworth and her companions were trapped in a hotel for several hours by angry local residents. They should have kept them there until the hunt was over.

Aldworth said she had to do a lot of arguing with Fisheries Department officials who wanted to restrict the number of helicopters in the northern Gulf to one per observer group. By the end of the day, humane society members were told they could take out two of their three helicopters, which will be carrying journalists from as far away as France and South Korea. Why do they need three helicopters? What business does France or South Korea have sticking their nose in our business? Do we protest the snail, sorry, escargot, hunt in France? Do we tell the South Koreans not to eat dogs? Why isn't the Humane Society on their cases? Because, as Nova Scotia MP Rodger Cuzner said, "The stark fact is we're talking about blood on the ice. The truth is it's an abbatoir on ice. If you eat meat at all, the meat you're eating came through some kind of similar process


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BRAVERY REBUTTAL

Sometimes, ya just gotta straighten some people out. I used to blog on another site and got tired of the pathetic comments of know-nothing readers who couldn't put up a valid argument to debate anything I wrote about. That's why I came here to Orble. People seemed intelligent and willing to debate issues on a civilized level. I guess that's not the case.

After some absence, I am hearing from ‘Anonymous' again, and though I know who he truly is, I won't flatter him by mentioning his name. He wants me to, though, but I won't give him any free publicity


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RATHER MISGUIDED

Has it come down to this? I know the Democrats of the USA want to cut and run from Iraq. I know they believe in ‘time-outs' instead of a swift kick in the rear end. I know they believe that prison rehabilitation actually works. I know more and more each day how misguided they are. But this is beyond comprehension.

They now want a provision in the war funding legislation that earmarks US$74 million for secure peanut storage. Shades of Jimmy Carter. I suppose if they don't get a guarantee that peanuts will be protected, they will cut off funding for all the troops far away making sure they can sleep peacefully at night


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BRAVERY

Well, it seems my questions re: the treatment of British sailors at the hands of the Iranians has been answered. Finally we are seeing demonstrations regarding their capture and treatment. People like Sheehan, Loney and Sean Penn must be proud. The demonstrators are Iranian students who, with typical Islamic class, set off large firecrackers, threw rocks and shouted "British, British, death to you, death to you." It's so nice to see such class emerge from a nation trapped in 7th century beliefs.

The British Foreign Office was fully justified in calling "completely unacceptable" the broadcasts of footage on the Iranian channel Al-Alam, showing these sailors being humiliated. I suppose that all those international activists who have spent the last half decade railing against Guantanamo will agree. Well, maybe they're too busy getting stoned, signing book deals or doing dirty dishes, but they'll get around to it eventually and show just how fair they are in condemning unfair treatment. No matter what effort it takes to pick up the remote and change channels


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PANDAS

On the lighter side comes the story of Chuang Chuang, a giant panda who refuses to co-operate. Chuang Chuang shares living accommodations with Lin Hui, who officials at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand want him to mate with.

Thailand rented 6-year-old Chuang Chuang and 5-year-old Lin Hui from China for US$250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. Pandas apparently come pretty cheap, but the Thai's said if they could have an offspring, they could cut their costs. They seem to be a frugal people


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THE MUSLIM METHOD

I just finished posting an article entitled "Equal, Not Special" and tried to point out how the Muslim community wants things to go their way. For all their rhetoric about assimilating into new societies, it just doesn't seem to be the case. I have in the meantime run across this letter sent to a local paper. It says volumes. And I will say again that the sooner the Muslims realize they are not the ‘be all to end all', the sooner we'll all get along.
*************
University open to all, not just one religious group


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EQUAL, NOT SPECIAL

Sometimes you look at a fire and see it only, while not realizing that the whole damn forest is on fire. There have been many stories about the Muslims in Quebec whining about how they are misunderstood and not shown the proper respect their religion demands. We tend to take these outcries as they happen and rarely put them together to see a greater pattern. These people are not terrorists. They are simply trying to live in a society that, most of them, it seems, are unfamiliar with. Quebec is taking a stand against the Muslims trying to change the Franco-phone way of life into something more to their liking, and except for that other great gift they've given us, the Montreal Canadiens, this is something we should all look at more closely.

Muslims deserve equal rights, not special rights. In a recent case, a little girl was not allowed to wear a hijab while playing soccer. Those were the rules and the referee enforced them. A big hue and cry went out that the decision was based on religious discrimination. Yet, even Muslims say the hijab itself is not a religious symbol. Another case involved a woman training to be a prison guard. She was told the hijab would have to go as it posed safety and security risks. Again, the cry of religious discrimination went up. She has since quit the program and gone on to bigger, and hopefully better, things, but the Canadian Islamic Congress refuses to let it go. Muslim advocacy groups, predictably, are now crying racism. "It is an ultimatum, remove the hijab or you're out of here," said the head of the Muslim Council of Britain. "That's not a security issue, this is much more a bigoted issue." First off, I don't know why the Muslim Council of Britain is sticking its nose where it doesn't belong, and second, when did a certain religion suddenly become a race? Are there not white Muslims, black Muslims or Asian Muslims? Give me a break


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AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

An Inconvenient Truth meets a few facts

S. Fred Singer, Special to The Windsor Star


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A LITTLE JUSTICE

Indonesia seems to be serious. From Jakarta comes the story of three Islamic militants who were sentenced for beheading three Christian schoolgirls and dumping their bloodied heads in nearby villages. The sentences ranged from 14 to 20 years. The members of the al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network left a handwritten note close to the bodies, vowing more killings to avenge the deaths of Muslims in earlier sectarian violence on Sulawesi island.

"Wanted - 100 more heads. Blood must be paid with blood, lives with lives, heads with heads," read Judge Lilik Mulyadi, reciting the letter's text. Hasanuddin, 34, who goes by a single name, was sentenced to 20 years for masterminding the 2005 attack, and co-conspirators Lilik Purnomo, 28, and Irwanto Irano, 29, each got 14 years. It's not much, but it is a start. Who says democracies don't lean over backwards to pamper the criminal? These three had faced a maximum penalty of death by firing squad, but judges ruled that they deserved some leniency for co-operating with authorities, confessing and showing remorse. Wow. It seems everyone in prison can find Jesus if it is their lives that are on the line. One supposes that these three failed suicide-murder school and were relegated to mere beheadings. Maybe they were working their way up the chain of command. Who knows


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APOLOGIES?

My friend, Jim Stillman, recently wrote an article asking whether it was right to offer apologies and reparations to those affected by slavery. This is a complex subject and should be looked at in greater depth.

Most of the comments he received were of the mind that while apologies might be necessary, reparations were out of the question. While I might disagree on the first point, I wholeheartedly agree with the second


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SPOKESMEN

S L Bradish just wrote an article on Anna Nicole Smith and the finding of ‘accidental overdose' as a cause for her death. Smith was not a spokesman for anything but herself, well maybe the wonders of injected plastic, and she played her role to the hilt. A self-confessed admirer of Marilyn Monroe, Smith saw herself as Monroe reincarnate and determined to live her life fast and die young. No word yet as to whether she was wearing clean underwear. Or any underwear for that matter.

But let's take this a step further. Why does celebrity automatically make a Hollywood star a voice we should listen to when it comes to world affairs? Granted, there are ‘stars' that use their notoriety for the good, or at least betterment, of mankind, but they seem to be few and far between


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