ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2004/12/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/01/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/02/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/03/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/04/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/05/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/06/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/07/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/08/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/09/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/10/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/11/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2005/12/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/01/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/02/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/03/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/04/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/09/ ARCHIVE: http://littletobacco.blogspot.com/2006/10/ AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/27/2006 09:00:00 p.m. TITLE: The Darkness Spreads ----- BODY:
Self-censorship in the face of the islamic ideology in Germany. More tolerating intolerance. So long to Mozart.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/27/2006 12:55:00 p.m. TITLE: Toronto Island Airport & Miller's Statist View. ----- BODY:
David Miller is putting people ahead of profits:
Asked by a reporter what he would tell Porter Airlines Inc. president and CEO Robert Deluce if Deluce was to call him, Miller replied, "I'd say it's time that you put your private interests aside and let the public interest prevail, and the public interest is in a revitalized waterfront. And a busy commercial airport doesn't have a place there.

The public are certainly going to get a vote. If Joe Public does not want an airport on the island, he will not use the airport on the island. It is pretty simple. Of course for David Miller, Joe Public is either too stupid or too selfish to know what is in his best interest. Joe Public will simply use the airport because of its convenience without a view to the collective good or if he is viewing the collective good, it is not the same view as Mayor Miller. This stupidity/selfishness forces the benevolent Mr. Miller and his statist ilk to force Joe Public to do what is in his own best interest under the penalty of law. Imagine the gall of Robert Deluce to see a demand and then provide the supply. Doesn't he know that in Toronto we like to put the cart before the horse.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/27/2006 08:29:00 a.m. TITLE: Coyne calls out Volpe and the ruling class ----- BODY:
Andrew Coyne's latest is well worth the read. Here's an excerpt:

Many indictments may be laid at the feet of Joe Volpe, but the most severe I can think of is this: I think he means it. I accuse him of sincerity. I accuse him of believing his own humbug: that all those children of all those Apotex executives each individually decided to donate the maximum $5,400 to his campaign of their own free will and out of their own bank accounts, because they were excited about his "message"; that the dead people his Quebec campaign signed up as members are the kind of "anomalies" one should expect in the
"hurly-burly" of politics; that he is the victim of an anti-Italian smear
campaign on the part of unnamed members of the party "establishment," but that he will fight on because, after all, it's for the kids.

It would be one thing if Mr. Volpe mouthed these absurdities in a
cynical, calculating attempt to divert attention from his campaign's multiple misdeeds. That at least would be recognizably human behaviour, the kind of thing you expect from your average grifter: Caught in the act, deny. Caught again, deny again. But in fact it's much worse than that. We haven't seen this sort of self-delusion since Sheila Copps's encounter with the woman at the bank machine.
You remember: The reason she finally agreed to abide by her campaign promise to resign her seat if the GST was not abolished was that she found herself unable to look the woman behind her in the eye -- a fabrication of quite mind-warping dimensions, inasmuch as it was supposed to illustrate how deep-down honest she was: how troubled she was at having broken her promise to resign. But the promise, as her subsequent behaviour made clear, was never intended to be kept. It was itself a lie, told to make people believe the original, ur-lie, namely that the Liberals would abolish the GST. Only Ms. Copps had been in the game so long she was genuinely unable to see this.

The moral she drew from the whole experience? "I don't think I'll ever be putting my seat on the line again if the voters are generous enough to reinvest their confidence in me." Spend a couple of hours plumbing the depths of that one.

-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/25/2006 09:02:00 p.m. TITLE: Taliban murder ----- BODY:
The ideology of Islam claims another victim. This time an Islamic woman who dared push for the education of Islamic women.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/25/2006 10:46:00 a.m. TITLE: Volpe in death throws ...blame society ----- BODY:
That poor innocent Alfonso Gagliano apparently finds himself in the political wilderness because of his Italian Heritage. His sympathies lie with Joe Volpe who is apparently suffering the same fate.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/25/2006 07:28:00 a.m. TITLE: Creating a Chinese Monopoly ----- BODY:
(Via Bourque)

The BBC is reporting that a high ranking member of China's politburo has been fired for corruption. As posted here (and here) before, corruption is part of the norm in China. It is a police state and the new economy is all bout taking money. You can look at this as a corporate takeover if you will. Corruption is the excuse for taking out a political competitor who has not been paying up the chain. The operative part of the article reads:
The sacking of Chen Liangyu comes ahead of the key Communist Party Congress later this year when Hu Jintao will be hoping to consolidate his leadership.

Until now, Shanghai - China's second city and financial centre -
has been considered a stronghold for officials loyal to Mr Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin. Mr Chen was a protege of Jiang Zemin.

There has been a continuing power struggle between Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Shanghai says.

Mr Chen's dismissal is being widely interpreted as Hu Jintao strengthening his position both within the party and the country as a whole, our correspondent adds.

The sacking of such senior Communist Party members are rare.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/20/2006 10:13:00 p.m. TITLE: Polling Liberals: Nothing determined ----- BODY:
The polls are in and the winner of the Liberal leadership is.... who knows. A lot is being made of this poll showing Iggy in front of Rae & Dion. Rae is the second choice for most Liberals. Dion has a decent second choice showing but Iggy is lagging. This apparently shows that Rae & Dion have the most room fro growth. Actually, this poll shows next to nothing. The Libs still use the delegate system and while the delegates may well be inclined to vote on the first ballot pursuant to their "mandate" on the second ballot all bets are off. Stage one of the campaign is getting your delegates elected. Stage two of the campaign is directed towards the delegates. Look for DIon to make a move when it comes to delegate support, particularly in the second round.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/20/2006 10:11:00 p.m. TITLE: This is worth a read ----- BODY:
Here is how you get the boys in blue to respond to your call.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/19/2006 10:57:00 a.m. TITLE: NB Election - polls correct ----- BODY:
The pollsters said New Brunswick election race was too close to call and it seems that they were right. Shawn Graham's Liberals defeated Bernard Lord's Tory Government yesterday but the Libs actually had a smaller vote percentage. The Libs took 47% of the vote while the Tories outpaced them with 47.65% of the vote. The logical assumption in 21st century politics is that Graham stole the election and his government will lack legitimacy forever. Carl Rove is to blame.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/19/2006 07:02:00 a.m. TITLE: Ditching the Gun Registry ----- BODY:
Good news on the gun registry front, the Tories are committed to its demise.
The gun registry has done harm to some of the otherwise law abiding citizens of Canada. What has become unfortunately more and more common is the use of the registry law in family law matters. A typical example: a couple splits up and the wife, to assist in getting exclusive possession of the matrimonial home and/or primary care of the children (and the corresponding support payments), calls the police to tell of a gun in the house. The police seize the same and charge the husband under the registry laws. Often, this is a gun that has been in the attic for decades and is not being used. Worse for the husband is the fact that there is unlikely to be a trigger lock on the gun so he is also going to be criminally charged with unsafe storage. Now there is a criminal record to go along with the registry charges. And after all of this, Canada is supposed to be a safer place?
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/18/2006 10:46:00 p.m. TITLE: Great Reporting in the Globe ----- BODY:
Nice for the cover photo on today's Globe and Mail:
Dawson College, Montreal : A pain that will not go away.

Really? Tens of people shot up less than a week ago and the students and families are still a bit shook up? Thanks Sherlock.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/18/2006 09:57:00 p.m. TITLE: So Long Bernie Lord ----- BODY:
The results are in from New Brunswick and Bernard Lord is long gone. 30 seats for the Liberals led by Shawn Graham to Lord's 25. A healthy majority for Mr. Graham. I doubt that the return of the Liberals will mean a return to the good government brought to New Brunswickers by Frank McKenna who is a rare individual. McKenna used virtually absoulte power not to his personal benefit (in typical Liberal fashion) but to bring fundamental change to the structures of government in an effort to provide better government. Did McKenna succeed? Hard to say, but at least he was honest and gave it a true shot. As for Mr. Lord, I believe it was his dithering that got him in the end. He never seemed confident in his decisions which always seemed to come a tad too late. He played his federal leadership potential card a little too cute and in the end, his end in NB will indeed be his end on the political scene.
-------- AUTHOR: Little Tobacco DATE: 9/13/2006 02:26:00 p.m. TITLE: Dawson College Montreal ----- BODY:
When I heard about this school shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, the first though that entered my mind was: I wonder if it is a Jewish School? Turns out it is a prep school with some 10,000 people. Still, it was my first thought.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if the above says more about the world in which we live or more about me.

With this said, these poor kids at Dawson did nothing to deserve this. There will be probably some talk in the not so distant future about bullies, outcasts, American guns, violence on TV, violent video games, dungeons and dragons and the like. However, I suspect that the shooter was just simply crazy. You have to be nuts to pull a stunt like this and chances are at some point in his life he was going to pull a stunt like this regardless of the video games and DVDs. The talk will be idle at best. The standard root causes crap. The kids at Dawson did not deserve this and no amount of blame on external factors will change that. Society did not pull the trigger, the shooter did.

UPDATE: Sept. 15, 2006 : Here it goes.

Not long ago, kids amused themselves shooting baskets in the park. Now millions of them are shooting the all-too-human characters that populate the strangely addictive world of videogames.


When I was a kid, pre-Atari, we had toy guns and played cops & robbers, cowboys & indians and the like. When we did not have guns we used sticks. The same holds true through the generations. Games with violent themes are part of growing up. We also played basketball, baseball, hockey, tag, spotlight, football, risk, monopoly, 120s and the like. There are tens of millions of gamers (of which I am not one) playing first person shooter games and they are not any danger. Remember when Dungeons and Dragons was the big threat? A guy like Gill is going to be attracted to FPS but it is hardly the cause of a guy like Gill going postal. If it were, these incidents would be far from isolated.
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