Archive for: October 2006

Boo, boys and girls.

‘Tis the Night o’ the Dead and neighbourhoods all across the land will soon be alive with creatures o’ the night of all sorts. Me? I’m gonna dress up as a job and see if I can scare the crap out of some of the panhandlers down at D&R…

As for you folks, here’s hoping that one and all have themselves a safe and happy Halloween this year. And while we’re at it, here I’m going to toss out just a few simple safety tips to make sure it really is all just good fun (as it should be):

1. Carry a flashlight
2. Walk, don’t run.
3. Stay on Sidewalks
4. Obey traffic signals
5. Stay in familiar neighborhoods
6. Don’t cut across yards or driveways.
7. Wear a watch you can read in the dark.
8. Make sure costumes don’t drag on the ground.
9. Shoes should fit (even if they don’t go with your costume)
10. Avoid wearing masks while walking from house to house.
11. Carry only flexible knives, swords or other props.
12. (If no sidewalk) walk on the left side of the road facing traffic
13. Wear clothing with reflective markings or tape.
14. Approach only houses that are lit.
15. Stay away from (and don’t pet) animals you don’t know.
16. And, finally, do NOT knock on this door…

(It’s got weird people that only hand out granola) 😯

The handwringing continues over the war in Afghanistan. Do we support it or don’t we? Should we stay the course or cut and run? Are we warriors or peacekeepers? What’s the latest from Bin Layton on all this? Has there been another poll on this yet? Why do we see all these antiwar types all over the media when poll after poll shows that most of us actually support the mission? Who, what, where, when, how, why!? ACK!!

For months (no, make that years) now, we’ve been pummelled from all sides by media utterly obsessed with this melodramatic gawking at our collective bellybutton. Sun Media and cnews hopped on that bandwagon themselves today with a whole slew of articles and links on their website chewing over the question of what we think about the war; including:

Waging a war of words
(Adam Clayton, Winterpeg Sun)

[…]The plan was to walk through some of Winnipeg’s busiest spots with a sandwich board sign urging people to support our soldiers in the war-torn country — and then hit the streets a few days later with another sign saying the opposite.

After my first sign sparked virtually no reaction outside the bus shelter at Portage Place on Tuesday afternoon, I headed to Osborne Village thinking I was bound to get a response from a youthful, anti-establishment crowd.

No such luck, as people would read the sign and then quickly look away.

Calling it a day, I hoped the anti-war sign would provoke more of a reaction. Man, did it ever.

Give war a chance
(Dave Breakenridge, Calgary Sun)

Trying to figure out how many people in Calgary support the war in Afghanistan should be like asking first-graders if they like puppies, right?

Drawing battle lines
(Thane Burnett, TO Sun)

Our signs gave no indication we were from the press. We were to stand silent, and let people react to an opinion.

Polls suggest about 59% of Canadians support Canadian combat troops being used in Afghanistan — with about half the country wanting our men and women to all return home when our current military commitment ends in 2009.

Despite the numbers, any debate seems low and muffled.

When I suggested this national project to test our convictions, I assumed almost everyone — as Canadians often do — would walk politely past any controversy.

I thought you wouldn’t have much to say. And I was wrong.

Battle on homefront
(Nelly Elayouby, Ottawa Sun)

A dishevelled homeless man wearing a camouflage cap charges toward me, the smell of booze wafting in my direction.

Arms stretched out, he grabs at my picket sign as I walk through a downtown underpass.

The sign reads “Support Our Troops in Afghanistan,” a message he doesn’t agree with.

“You’re brainwashed just like the rest of them!” he yells, pointing his head toward Parliament Hill.

“Give me that sign, let me rip it for you!”

A war of words
(Joe Matyas, Freeps)

Tyler Fairweather had only been on the street for a minute with his “Support our troops in Afghanistan” sign when a man in a cube van flashed a thumbs-up in approval.

As he walked to the busiest corner in downtown London in the late afternoon, the affirmations kept coming — nods, waves, winks, a few “yeses” and “right ons” and more thumbs.

Fairweather, 17, has a 19-year-old cousin enlisted in the Canadian Forces who’s now in Edmonton preparing for a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Strong views on either side
(Andrew Hanon, Edmonton Sun)

In my case, the people of Edmonton were too polite to get up into my face, no matter which placard I wore. The one that read “Support our troops in Afghanistan” earned more honks and thumbs-up from passing drivers, but drew more dirty looks and clucks of disapproval from pedestrians along Whyte Avenue. One young woman glared through her eyebrow piercings and shook her head, but never said anything as she shouldered her way past me. I even marched into HUB Mall at the University of Alberta to see if anyone would challenge me there. But the of only people who spoke to me were a former soldier and two active reservists, both whom had done tours in Afghanistan. Cpl. Marta Rzechowka said the media’s fixation on body counts has helped people forget the reason our soldiers are there in the first place ­ rebuilding a shattered country and routing the despotic maniacs who previously ruled it. She added that the federal government hasn’t done a very good job of explaining the mission to Canadians. Cpl. Greg O’Neil agreed: “The media report a lot on casualty rates, but nobody seems to hear when we build a bridge or a school. I guess that just doesn’t sell papers.”

So, just where the heck do Canadians stand on this issue these days, you ask? Well, the online poll at canoe.ca which was put up yesterday is still running and, while the number of votes has more than doubled, little has changed:

And yes, the poll that has been running here (at the top of the left sidebar) is still unanimous. That’s never happened before.

And it continues. Now that we finally have a Grit in the race (Glen Pearson, elected at a meeting with a piddling turnout of “about 175 party faithful … that failed to fill a quarter of the auditorium at Lucas secondary school,” with a mere “124 ballots cast,” according to the Freeps), Bob Ede has parachuted in from Thornhill to throw his hat into the ring as well. Dang, but it’s startin’ to get kinda crowded around here.

And, make some sense of this if you can, Pearson seems to be the most fired-up of the bunch so far, firing broadsides at literally everyone else in the race (except Ede, who technically isn’t even in the running yet) during his speech last night:

May, he said, can’t say she represents the grassroots because she, too, is an outsider.

And Layton, who asked voters to “lend” his party support, should realize “your time is up. We want that vote back.”

But the normally mild- mannered food bank director and organizer of humanitarian aid for Sudan, saved his harshest comments for Haskett…

Look to see a lot more of that. “Saving the harshest comments for Haskett,” that is. Everybody with any grey matter at all knows damned well that she’s the candidate to beat in this race, no matter what the MSM might bleat about London North Centre being a “Liberano$ bastion.”

Look for plenty bellyaching of all sorts from the MSM, including stabs at her choice of religion (as if Jesus was the bogeyman) and doleful warnings about her “devisiveness.” I’m not too worried, though. Remember that the last time the harping handwringers labelled Hasket an intolerant, fundamentalist, divisive nutjob, she won by a margin of two to one, without even opening her mouth for most of the campaign! Think on that. 😉

So, for those wondering, here’s where the slate stands right now in London North Centre:

• Dianne Haskett (Tories)
• Elizabeth May (Greenies)
• Glen Pearson (Fiberals)
• Megan Walker (Dippers)
• Robert Ede (ind. & pending 100 signatures)
• Steve Hunder (Progressive Canadian Party)

Meanwhile, here’s what else is floating around out there:

The Freeps
Federal byelection clouds city vote

Catholic Online
‘I’m priest first,’ says Catholic cleric running for political office

There’s been a lot of musing of late about the media’s role in the war on terror. Just what the heck do they think they’re doing, anyway? The way they slant the news, it’s enough to make you seriously wonder sometimes if they really aren’t on the terrorists’ side and deliberately trying to undermine our efforts to preserve our freedoms (including, ironically enough, freedom of the press). Why are they like that, anyway?

Over at the Calgary Sun, columnist Ezra “The Lip” Levant publishes his take on that question today. It makes for an interesting read, I’ll say that much.

That is the lesson every terrorist learned during the Vietnam era — if you can just survive long enough without being killed by the military, the media will save you. In Vietnam, for example, the 1968 Tet Offensive by North Vietnam was a military disaster — more than half of the 84,000 Communist troops involved were killed, and no territory was won.

It was a wipe-out. But anti-war media, led by Walter Cronkite, declared it a massive victory for the Communists, demoralizing Americans and undermining the military.

The full article can be found here.

I like seeing stuff like this, really, I do. In spite of all the bawling and cut-and-run crap coming from all the usual suspects at the far left of the political spectrum, you still end up with poll after poll after poll saying essentially the same thing: Yes, we support our troops and, yes, we do support what they are doing in Afghanistan! Here’s the latest one from canoe.ca’s question on the subject:

Do the math yourself and you see that a clear majority (65%) believe that our troops should damn well stay right where they are until the job is done. So where the hell is all the “widespread opposition” to this “unpopular action” that we keep hearing about over and over again?

Well? I’m waiting… 🙄

Hell, even the poll here that’s been up for the last 3 days shows ONE HUNDRED PERCENT support for keeping up the fight until it’s one. Granted, I don’t exactly get a lot of Lefties on this site 😉 but it’s not like the odd one doesn’t pop by every now and then. You would have thought, listening to all the bleats from the MSM on the subject, that there would have been at least one of the over 20 people that voted so far would have said something other than ” When the job is done,” wouldn’t you?

Well, there really hasn’t been much buzz over this weekend, has there? Nope, not much at all. Nada from the NDP, nary a trifle from the Tories, and the Greens seem to have gagged themselves (okay, so the weekend wasn’t a total writeoff…). The Grits, however, did finally manage to corral some poor bastard into running for them in London North Centre. So, without any further ado, adon’t or whatevertheheckhaveyou, here we go with what I’ve got for ya. Grab a coffee and have yourself a read. But make it a small one; there ain’t much here…:

The Freeps
Second round for Ross, Pearson
Pearson to carry Liberal banner