Whoah. I had totally thought that things like this were a thing of the past. 😯 Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. It’s just that I was under the impression that this kind of wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee common sense had, at some time, fallen by the wayside in oh-so-progressive Ontario.

It’s nice to be wrong every now and then. It seems that there’s at least one county in my home province that isn’t falling for all the touchy-feely bullcrap that the would-be Dr. Spocks of the world are trying to foist on us…

Summer in Lambton County means sun, surf — and no kids out alone after midnight.

Underlining the point, Lambton OPP scooped up nine youths out past midnight this week for violating a public curfew after several reports of theft and vehicle break-ins.

The seasonal crackdown, to curb mischief, vandalism and theft, allows authorities to apprehend youths under 16.

“It does get the word out to youth that we mean business and there is zero tolerance for it,” Petrolia Mayor John McCharles said yesterday.

“Police are not out to get kids but to keep them safe,” he said. “It also sends the message to parents that if they don’t keep track of their kids, they’ll be picked up by police.”

Damn. Keep that kind of stuff up and your kids might just grow up right, if you’re not careful…

Holy crap, Batman! It seems that there actually is a Lefty someplace in this country that isn’t waiting on a brain donor. Mr. Cameron Campbell, apparently from somewhere in La Belle Province, is a regular commentor over at The Torch and a guy with a serious social pedigree, has gone and gotten utterly sick and tired of Jumpin’ Jack! Jerkweed. In a recent Torch post, he shares a letter that he recently sent the little smirkin’ gherkin and I gotta tell ya, this is one damn smart Lefty…

Mr. Jack Layton,

On your biography page it says that you believe in practical solutions for problems. And yet you keep saying things like “The strategy being followed by NATO right now is producing the precise opposite effect to the one that the promoters of this mission are suggesting should be the goal,” Layton said. “In other words, growth of support for the Taliban because of these air strikes.”

Only a comprehensive peace process — not armed conflict — can resolve the crisis in Afghanistan, he argued, noting that “students of history will know that all major conflicts are resolved ultimately through peace-oriented discussions.””

Actually history shows us that peace happens when several conditions exist, not the least of which being that one side feels like they’ve lost, so your argument, respectfully, is utter crap.

I’m being quite serious, “peace-oriented discussions” (also known as peace negotiations or talks – who writes for you? They should be fired.) require that 1) everyone wants peace 2) there is a central authority to negotiate with 3) that the end of conflict will not immediately be replaced with some new, different kind of conflict (like, say, a series of genocidal massacres based on, say, supporting democracy and western style ideals of same).

So your thesis fails on point one horribly, on point two it’s laughable, and on point three you’re displaying a callousness towards human life that makes me want to vomit.

The reality is that there is no peace to keep, no peace to negotiate for, no one to negotiate with and no secure area to negotiate within. Pretending that these conditions exist is a fantasy.

Once the left was populated by people like my Uncles who fought in WW2, by people like Orwell and Trumbo, who could tell wrong from right and could figure out that something had to be done about it.

Now it’s populated by people like you who believe in a pacifist unilateralism that appears to me to be suicidal. Certainly we don’t get to negotiate peace with allies, but suggesting that the way forward in Afghanistan is via a policy of unidimensional ” peace-oriented discussions” (still thinking that someone should loose their job over that..) ignores the reality and the complexity of the situation. This knee jerk reaction towards anything involving the US (and increasingly, NATO) is, frankly, childish and simplistic.

I think the current regime in the US are a pack of corrupt, right wing demagogues, most of whom need a good sending to bed without dinner (and/or jail time) but in my read, that has bugger all to do with the fact that the Canadian Forces presence in the reconstruction and (horrors) combat operations in Afghanistan is accomplishing good.

Additionally sir, the tying of Canadian troops, even tangentially, to what you seem to believe is a NATO policy of bombing civilians for sport is disgusting. It does your position utterly no good at all. It’s wrong.

I know that journalists seek you out every time a Canadian is killed in Afghanistan and why not? You give good clip. But the constant sight of you scoring cheap political points with the deaths of our military personal? It wears sir. A suggestion, one that would ratchet up many peoples respect for you by something like 100%, would be to tell the journalists a variation on “There will be time to discuss the mission later, today our thoughts are with our brave soldiers and their families.” Trite? Maybe. Lacking in the fun oomph of scoring cheap shots? Oh yes. Respectful and classy? Indeed.

I come from a family who’s political views range from red Tory all the way to charter members of the CCF (my Great Aunt and Uncle were XXXX and XXXX), with stops along the way in trade unionism, full on communists and just about every other colour of the socially progressive rainbow. I’ve voted for your party in the past (and in the absence of your party running a viable candidate in my riding, for M. Duceppe), so it pains me to say this: I will never vote for the NDP while you are at it’s helm.

Never.

I’ll vote for a fringe party, the Monarchists, the Communist party, whatever local looney has managed to get together the deposit by borrowing the money from his friend, but never ever again the NDP.

I expect no response to this letter, I expect that you won’t even see it or have it read to you (Hello, by the way, to the intern reading this. I hope you’re having a great summer, my jobs always sucked and involved lifting boxes or digging holes, good on you for scoring a good one. Enjoy it, and good luck next semester. Stay in school.), I know that democracy no longer works that way but it felt like the least I could do.

With great regret,

Cameron Campbell

Now just how the hell am I supposed to convincingly explain to people what idiots socialists are, when one of them goes around saying stuff like that?? 😕

And a big ol’ top o’ the chapeau to Babbling Brooks, who is the one that I got word of this from. His own commentary was pretty damned good, too, so check it out.

This time from the Armpit Of The Universe®, as police announce that they are looking for a “16-year old male” in connection with a double homicide in which two men were gunned down sometime just before 04:00 this morning. The Ministry Of What You Should Think has some video here of the story.

So far, the cops haven’t yet released any name of photo of the “person of interest” (a fancypants, politically correct word for “suspect“) … yet …

Homicide detectives are trying to unravel a bizarre double murder after finding two men shot dead in Scarborough’s east end early Wednesday.

[…]

At the scene, Insp. Peter Yuen said police are looking for a teenage boy who’s a “person of interest” at this point.

The teen is described as about 16 years old with a shaved head, 5-foot-7, with a medium build and wearing dark clothes.

Yup, another little criminal bastard “youth offender” that you won’t be allowed to know anything at all about as soon as it’s politically correct to shove you back into the dark. As usual, I’ll have more on this as it comes up…

Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised by this. At all.

I may have been a little hesitant at first — and there were plenty of people emailing in to call me on it — but after the early revelations, my mind got changed in a hurry and what we have here now should surprise absolutely no one. I’ve gotten quite a few emails speculating about just how the murders of the Richardson family in Medicine hat were carried out, and most of them shared a common theory: Steinke killed the parents and Jasmine killed her 8-year old brother herself.

Well, so much for that being a wild theory:

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – A 13-year-old girl accused of killing a Medicine Hat family broke down twice on the witness stand yesterday while admitting to stabbing an eight-year-old boy who was begging for his life.

Speaking in a barely audible voice, she admitted to stabbing eight-year-old Jacob Richardson in the upper part of his body.

“I’m scared, I’m too young to die,” the girl told the court, recalling what the boy said during the April 23, 2006, massacre.

There you have it. Sweet, innocent little Jasmine Richardson stuck a knife in her little brother while he begged for his life. Of course, she’s trying to hang it all on Steinke, but that’s not the way the evidence is piling up:

After three weeks of Crown evidence about the grisly crime scene and a rebellious adolescent who hated her parents and the rules they tried to impose, Tuesday’s testimony was the first time the jury heard full details of the murderous encounter.

She was angry because her parents grounded her and took away her computer privileges in an attempt to cool her relationship with the 23-year-old Steinke. She told the jury she often “vented” to her boyfriend as they talked on the phone late at night after her family had gone to sleep and admitted she’d had several “hypothetical conversations” with him about killing her parents.

As if all this weren’t bad enough, little Jasmine isn’t ever going to be held really accountable, regardless of the verdict. Thanks to the piece-of-shit YCJA that the Shawinigan Strangler saddled us with, she can’t possibly be handed a sentence of more than 10 years. And thanks to other idiocies like statutory release, she won’t do any more than six years inside, likely living with more creature comforts while she’s in there than most of you do out in the working world. Tack onto that the fact that she’s going to get 2-for-1 credit for the “dead time” that she’s served before her final sentencing, and she’ll be back on the streets before she’s old enough to drink.

And here’s the kicker: all the social-worker/hug-a-thug shitheads out there that think the YCJA is so lovely are going to try to tell you that you have no right to know who she is!

That’s right. In the all-too-near future, Jasmine’s going to be out on the same streets as your kids. Maybe, like my boy, your kids are about Jasmine’s age. And those sanctimonious assholes have the gall to try and tell me that I can’t warn him about this future Squeaky Fromme that’s going to be prowling the streets.

Like hell I can’t. My kids and my grandkids (whenever they show up) have a right to know if there’s a murderer in their midst.

Your kids have that right, too.

Oh, yeah; last but not least:

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – A 13-year-old girl says she showed little emotion after stabbing her terrified little brother – knowing her parents were also dead – because the enormity of the act was “too big to cry about.”

Just one more thing to chew on…

Okay, I’ve been getting quite a few grumpy emails lately from people that have been trying to post comments here, only to have them fall into the black hole of my Spammer Whammer®.  As a result, everybody and their dog seems to want to know when I’ll be getting rid of the spam filter on the site.

The short answer is that I’m not going to be getting rid of the filter any time in the foreseeable future.  Each and every day, I get about 600-800 entries in the comments that all promise me that I’ll be razor thin, with washboard abs, a $12 million Nigerian bank account, the world’s biggest trouser trout, and enough viagra to make sure everybody knows about it.

So, until HMPM Harper manages to get a majority in the House, dump all the Grit cronies in the Senate and pass a bill making it legal to shoot spammers, the filter is staying right where it is.

Sorry for the inconvenience folks, but that’s just the way it’s gotta be…

Okay, the hangover’s worn off and I’m ready to get back to presenting my opinions like a cranky caged ape flinging poop at a gaggle of rubberneckers.

I have no idea exactly how it happened, but here’s how it went:

I got into it with one of those playdoh-skulled peaceniks on Friday night. You know the type; the ones that never met anything military that wouldn’t make ’em open a fudge factory in their Stanfields. This particular twerp was going on and on about how we shouldn’t be Fighting Dubya’s War For Oil© and oppressing the nice terrorists in Afghanistan and all the other usual bullshit. He was also űberpissed about how we were making our soldiers go and fight a war they wanted no part in.

That’s where my bullshitometer redlined. I pulled the emergency brake on his little chatter choochoo and gave him the bad news that service in Afghanistan is purely voluntary for CAF personnel. In other words, if you don’t ask, you don’t go. Of course, he tried to argue that with me (a doomed effort if ever there was one) but when that failed, he fell back on wondering “what kind of person volunteers for something like that.”

And that’s when it happened.

I had a profundity; right there in the middle of the pub. I imagine they’ve probably cleaned it up by now (it was one of those kinds of places) but it still happened, nonetheless…

“What kind of person does that?” I asked, still shaking off the incredulity. “Lemme ask ya something, bozo: do you own a dog?”
“Um, yeah,” he answered, wondering where the hell I was going with that.
“Has your dog ever gotten sick?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” This bonehead clearly had no idea what was coming.
“Just answer the damn question: has your dog ever gotten sick?”
“Well, yeah; once or twice.”
“Did you hake him to the vet?”
“Of course.”
“So you took your sick dog to the vet?”
“Yes, I took my sick f#%!ing dog to the f#%!ing vet, what the hell’s your point?” He was probably wondering if we were having the same conversation by now.
“So you treat your dog better than the Taliban treated women?”
“WHAT?!?!?” Where’s a camera when you need one? 🙄
“If your dog gets sick, you take it to the vet. Under the Taliban, if a woman gets sick, she can’t be examined by a male doctor, only by a woman doctor. But ther aren’t any women doctors, are there? Because women aren’t allowed to have jobs. And even if they could get jobs, they aren’t allowed to go to school. So that woman sits in the house — because she isn’t allowed to leave or she risks getting the shit beat out of her in the streets by the local “guardians of virtue” — with the disease or whatever it is working its way through her, and she either lives or she dies. Period. That’s it. And you can’t get your pissant little brain around the idea that some people might volunteer to do their part to put an end to something like that??”

After that, he quickly retreated back to burbling about colonialism, oil and Dubya until I popped him in the smeller and he went away. Not my proudest moment, perhaps, but one that I won’t be ashamed to share with my son one day when he’s older. (And before some knob out there starts accusing me of “advocating violence” or some other such bullshit, remember that I put a cute little kitten graphic to the right, so that makes it all okay )

Because I know, in my bones, something that waffling little snot will spend the rest of his life trying to avoid knowing: Without men like me, men like him are an evolutionary dead end.