Picture of the Day: Le Tour Eiffel

Saturday Fluffernutter: Amy in video/investigation/rehab; Britney's paparazzi pal; The Razzies; RIP Suzanne Pleshette and Heath Ledger.

The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.

The new James Bond movie has a title: Quantum of Solace. Formerly called Bond 22, filming is moving along well. This week it was reported that filming will move to Bregenz in western Austria, on the edge of Lake Constance in April. Quantum of Solace is currently filming in London with Daniel Craig back as James Bond, Bond girls Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko and villain Mathieu Amalric.

Trouble Child Amy Winehouse was seen smoking what appears to be crack in a video obtained by Britain's The Sun newspaper this week (the offending puff is at about the 2:00 mark). Coming in the same week as Heath Ledger's death, the video is disturbing, to say the least. Police have obtained a copy of the video and are investigating. Winehouse meanwhile has apparently gone, gone gone into rehab, hopefully for real.



It's Razzie time again, when the folks at the Golden Raspberry Awards give out their hardware for worst movies and performances of the past year. I Know Who Killed Me, the Lindsay Lohan vehicle topped the list with nine nominations, however, Eddie Murphy set a record with five personal nominations - and one wasn't his wedding video.

Oliver Stone has announced he is making a movie about President George W. Bush starring Josh Brolin as the President. Stone promises it won't be "a hatchet job."

Of course it won't, Hollywood loves and respects it's president.

This week's Led Zeppelin rumour, courtesy of Ramble On: Jimmy Page will hold a press conference in Tokyo Monday, presumably to announce new Led Zeppelin shows: don't be holding your breath, however. It seems unlikely the press shy Page would make such an announcement independently.

Britney dates paparazzi; Britney dumps paparazzi; paparazzi sells intimate pictures of their relationship. Hey, it's what paparazzi do, did nobody tell Britney this? But really, they were only together two weeks, how intimate can the pictures be?

Through all this, his wife has filed for divorce. Didn't Britney steal K-Daddy from some other woman too? And what, prey tell, will the presiding judge on the divorce make of intimate pictures he took of Britney Spears while still married?

Saddened to hear the news of Suzanne Pleshette's death at age 70. She always seemed a classy lady in an industry routinely short of class of any kind. Bob was right, however: she should have worn sweaters more often.

It's hard to come up with something to say about Heath Ledger's sudden death at age 28 this week. In an age when much of the world is expecting a Britney/Lindsay/Amy death notice at any time, did anyone pick Heath Ledger to die of, what appears to be at this stage, a drug overdose. He seemed one of the more down to earth young stars and his passing can only be seen as a shock and a tragedy - especially so for his young daughter, two year old Matilda.

What is strangest in all this though is why anybody, upon finding somebody lifeless in bed, would call Mary-Kate Olsen. Ashley, sure, but dear God! call 911, then Mary-Kate Olsen.

Inflexible Unionism: Update

Things are now getting ugly at Ledco as the company filed for bankruptcy last night causing workers blocade the plant, both last night and this morning. The CAW is announcing they have now occupied the plant:

CAW members at Ledco Limited tool and die facility in Kitchener have taken over their plant this morning after the company filed bankruptcy last night.
The CAW has been told the workers will not get their much deserved severance pay for their service. The union will continue to occupy the plant until the company agrees to pay the severance.

It's hard to blame the poor guys who just lost their job, but you have to wonder if the CAW has no shame: this closing is directly attributable to their refusal to negotiate, and now they are occupying the plant demanding the company do just that.

Inflexible Unionism

With news that Kitchener's Ledco suddenly closed the doors Wednesday after the CAW refused to negotiate wage and benefit cuts, you have to wonder what is up and coming in this falls Big Three contract negotiations.

Reports this week said GM "had scrapped plans to build some rear-wheel-drive sedans in Oshawa, which could reduce planned output at Canada's largest auto manufacturing complex by 250,000 units per year." However, GM employees can relax, as Buzz Hargrove has assured them GM is committed to Oshawa:

I'm confident that they not only want to build there, they're obligated to: Mr. McGuinty's government put $235 million into the Beacon, Paul Martin's government put $200 million in, and our local union bargained a new agreement

And if they don't commit to Oshawa, will taxpayers get their $½ Billion back? Remember last fall, GM committed to 16 new vehicle programs at their US plants, the same plants that gave wage and benefit concessions in a new contract signed in September.

Which takes us back to Ledco:

Elgin Dezell, a 30-year veteran of the plant, said he was in favour of accepting a wage cut to save his job, but his position was at odds with his union.

"The company gave (the union) until 3 o'clock in the afternoon to change their stand," he said. "We were willing to give the company something, but the union would not allow that. That puts us out on the streets."

Dezell organized an employee vote in the hopes of persuading his co-workers to accept a 25 per cent wage cut and 20 per cent benefits cut...

Dezell said 29 of his unionized co-workers showed up for the vote, with 23 voting in favour of the pay cut.

Tim Mitchell, president of Local 1524 [Canadian Auto Workers], said the vote was not authorized by the union and did not reflect the wishes of the majority of the workers...

The CAW has a policy of not negotiating wage and benefit cuts.

Mitchell said he was prepared to discuss a number of cost-cutting alternatives with company managers but they refused to budge from their position.

"They took the position that nothing short of the specific demands they made would be acceptable in that facility," he said. "Then they walked away from negotiations."

Mitchell said he had not had any meaningful discussions with Ledco management since December...

Kim Austin, human resources manager at Ledco, said that when the decision was made to close the plant in the late afternoon, there wasn't even enough time to write individual letters to employees.

So the question for Buzz is, does the CAW, today, still refuse to negotiate wage and benefit cuts? And if so, what car will GM put in Oshawa when they are done putting 16 cars in US plants?

Are Judges Getting The Message?

Maybe it's two isolated cases, but when was the last time two stories in a week featured get tough judgements?

"This was a particularly heinous crime. It has shocked the conscience of right-thinking people across the country," a solemn Ontario Superior Court Justice David McCombs ruled yesterday in denying her bail.

"I have concluded that this is one of those rare cases where detention is justified ... in order to maintain confidence in the administration of justice."

Don't judges usually say "this was a particularly heinous crime..." just before they respond as if it isn't? Perhaps if she been caught with a gun when they arrested her, bail would have been easier to give:

"The main principle is general deterrence," said Justice Alexander Sosna. "These offences have been and continue to be a serious problem in our community."...

"As unfortunate as these circumstances may be, they do not determine the ultimate sentence," said Judge Sosna. "It is my responsibility to impose a sentence on an exemplary citizen who has committed a serious crime."

Deterrence? Responsibility to impose sentence? What about your responsibility to the criminal?

Just two cases, but perhaps it's the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps we are seeing the start of tougher justice from judges who are getting the message - Canadians want crime to pay.

What are the betting odds...

...that it's stress related?

Me, I love the idea that Toronto catholic school taxpayers pay her "expensive restaurant bills... on weekend nights where the bill is delivered around midnight", Then they get to pay for her "plus sized clothing and lingerie."

Maple Leafs: Back to the 90's

Last April I posted about the Maple Leafs returning to the glory years of the 1980's. As I noted, the only thing worse than the music back in 1987 was the Leafs. And since I posted that article less than a year ago, things have gotten so much worse; so much so that a few weeks ago the Sun had a full page picture of Harold Ballard on the cover of the sports section.

Things, however, are looking up Leaf fans, as the team today fired John Ferguson and announced it is bringing back Cliff Fletcher as the teams interim GM. It's like 1991 all over again, optimistically leaving those dreadful 80's behind, a brighter future, the pride returns &tc. Oh glory days!

Far be it for me to pooh-pooh this idea too much. Frankly, Fletcher is tailor made for the kind of tearing apart and trading away the Leafs need right now. But feel free to wake me when the Leafs enter the 21st century. Then, and only then, may I maybe care again.

Michael Coren on Ezra Levant... and Me

The real issue here is not about a weak or fearful press becoming "more responsive to Muslim sensitivities than to truth or the concerns of any other group," ... or about pandering to any segment of society.

Rather, it is about cultural sensitivity, social responsibility and common sense. Freedom of speech is not and never has been an absolute. "The most stringent protection of free speech would not," Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote, "protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre." This right carries with it a need to be responsible for one's actions.

Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and creator of Doonesbury, sums it up best: "Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world." Exactly...

Let's change the visual for a moment. One of the cartoons basically portrayed the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist.

So, how would a Catholic react to a cartoon of Christ sexually abusing a child, published at the height of the controversy about Catholic priests sexually abusing boys?...

Newspapers have an obligation to their communities to inform, entertain, educate and explain, to place events in context, in such a way as to make them not only understandable, but useful. Newspapers also have a duty to provoke and challenge -- to act as a conduit for discussion and debate.

But there is a world of difference between discussion and debate and engaging in sweeping generalizations and racist stereotyping...

Just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should do it.

The above was written by Jim Jennings at the Toronto Sun in Feb 2006, explaining why they did not publish the now infamous "Muhammad cartoons". I called it cowardice at the time, and it's still cowardice. So it's interesting that today Michael Coren writes in the same newspaper about Ezra Levant, the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and "the real reason the cartoons were not published, of course, is that people were terrified of the consequences.":

Actually the real disgrace here is that the Western Standard was the only Canadian publication to print the cartoons. They should have been featured in every media outlet in the country, in that they made international news. The ostensible reason that they weren't published was that they were, yet again, offensive.

So bloody what? Canadian newspapers publish cartoons that are offensive to Christians, for example, dozens of times a year. Tolerating that which offends is part of being an adult, being sensible and being part of an adult, sensible county with an adult, sensible culture. Or at least it was.

The real reason the cartoons were not published, of course, is that people were terrified of the consequences. In some cases editors had private security companies give them estimates of how much it would cost to protect their buildings. Which is not only cowardly, but deeply insulting to Canadian Muslims, who are some of the most moderate in the Islamic diaspora.

The editors at the good old New York Times pretentiously explained why they wouldn't publish pictures of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. They could, they said, adequately explain the cartoons in words. Odd, then, that in the same week they printed a photograph of an alleged artwork depicting the Virgin Mary covered in excrement. Suddenly their ability to describe had abandoned them.

The stench of double standard and fearfulness is as heady as the perfume from an Arabic harem.

We know they're lying and they know they're lying.

"We know they're lying and they know they're lying." Exactly! It was so then, it is so now. Yet Michael Coren takes the New York Times to task for it's pretentious explanation, is the Toronto Sun's any less so? And as Coren very accuatly points out, that quote about "Catholic react to a cartoon of Christ sexually abusing a child" is nonsense. They sure wouldn't kill the cartoonist, and if they did the Toronto Sun would be the first ones to publish the cartoon to give the story it's proper context.

The media's cowardice on this issue is a major reason Ezra Levant is in front of the Human Rights Commission: if Western Standard wasn't the only publication printing them, they likely wouldn't have had a complaint. Yet the news media, outside of a few editorials, has been silent on this issue. (MPs staffers didn't even know it was an issue.) Once again those who have the most to lose by the crushing of free speech in this country seem to be uninterested in it's demise.

Of course, if it was the Sun's right to publish pictures of Karla Holmolka that was at issue, they would be all over it. What shouldn't need explaining to them, but clearly does, is next time it may Karla taking them to the human rights commissions, claiming her rights are violated by surreptitious pictures printed in the Sun, and they will have already forfeited the argument:

Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world.

Words to lose by.

Saturday Fluffernutter: Sunny has a Baby;

The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.

It was baby weekend last weekend in the fluffernutty world of Hollywood. Christina Aguiera, Toni Collette and Nicole Ritchie all gave birth last weekend. Also on the list is Christine Kim, wife of comedian David Alan Grier. Congratulations to all.

On other baby news, gorgeous Courtney Thorne-Smith, star of Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerd in Paradise, has had a boy, her first. It is Smith's and media consultant husband Roger Fishman's first child.

Courtney Love is hoping to get Scarlett Johansson to play her in a biopic based on her last husband Kurt Cobain.

Well, I suppose if Charlize Theron can play Aileen Wournos, then Scarlett Johansson can play Courtney Love but what's the point? The life of Courtney Love is hardly Oscar winning material and hell, being Courtney Love isn't exactly career enhancing so how much lift can you hope to get playing her?

It's over. Finished. Finito. We may now never find out how Dr. House's fellowship games play out. The 2007 - 08 TV season is done. The Los Angeles Times reported this week that four studios have cancelled "dozens of writers contracts, effectively conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged."

Time to set those TiVo's you got for Christmas to "next year."

The scandal in the music world this week is that a number of singers have been implicated in using steroids to enhance their performance. Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland and Wyclef Jean may have, it is reported, received or used steroids or human growth hormone. The drugs may apparently help the vocal chords from becoming strained. If you consider that an asthmatics puffer is steroids this makes some sense. Why you should care if they are taking them, I still haven't been able to figure out: will they be putting an asterisk beside their Grammy wins now?

A good news Britney Spears story: Four paparazzi were arrested late Wednesday night on misdemeanor reckless driving charges after chasing Spears in the San Fernando Valley. Good work by the officers involved who while on routine patrol "observed the four drivers speeding and making unsafe lane changes in the San Fernando Valley near Plummer Street and Woodman Avenue shortly before 11:30 p.m."

Farewell to Bobby Fischer who died yesterday at age 64. An undisputed chess genius, Fisher, who beat Boris Spasky in 1972 to become the world champion, Fischer became an extreme eccentric who all but disappeared from public life in his later years. Cause of death is unknown at this time.

In Through The Out Box

My desk is piling up with a weeks worth of newspapers and articles that I meant to get to. Instead, I'm going to do a one off post on the stuff that caught my eye the past week or so:

Tuesday a week ago, I commented on an excerpt from David Frum's book in which he called for a Pigovian carbon tax. I cited Terence Corcoran, specifically his No Pigou Club in the post.

Not surprisingly, Corcoran also replied to Frum's assertion that a carbon tax is good conservative policy in an article last Friday, All Things To All People, which now appears on the No Pigou Club web site. Corcoran does a really nice job of pointing out the flaws in Frum's argument:

That's the miracle plan: Break the enemy's back by taxing your own citizens. As for the details, well, like all miracles, it's hard to figure them out.

Ouch.

Speaking of the No Pigou Club, it has moved. Financial Post has put their comment section online, at http://www.financialpost.com/fpcomment. It features regular editorials and columns by the FP writers, Terence Corcoran, William Watson, Peter Foster and Lawrence Solomon. As well it is home to some feature items, such as the No Pigou Club, The Deniers and Junk Science. Links will be put on my sidebar in the very near future.

Best line I read in the last week comes from an FP article by Robert Sopuck, In Defence of a Big Juicy Steak. In it, "Sopuck argues that avoiding meat in favour of plant products will not ensure more efficient use of the Earth's resources, as cattle critics contend."

The line in question is in the second last paragraph:

As for the red-meat-is-bad-for-you argument, I take the view that if you give up fat (and sugar and alcohol, too, for that matter) you may not live longer; it will just seem that way.

I can't wait to get on the summer BBQ circuit to use that line.

I've been waiting for the right moment to say this for a long time, but I really like Christopher Hitchens. That may be a bit heretical for a Tory and God knows I find his obsessive atheism a bit tiring, but the guy can flat out write. Whether I agree or disagree with him, and it's usually a 50-50 thing, I always find his writing compelling. This week I happened to agree with him on an article called The Case Against Hillary Clinton: Why on earth would we choose to put the Clinton family drama at the center of our politics again?

Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security: The case against Hillary Clinton for president is open-and-shut. Of course, against all these considerations you might prefer the newly fashionable and more media-weighty notion that if you don't show her enough appreciation, and after all she's done for us, she may cry.

And that's just a portion the last paragraph. Hitchens rarely if ever pulls his punches, and it makes him a must read wherever he turns up.

The Problem With Banning Handguns.

After yet another shooting kills yet another innocent bystander in Toronto the not in a death spiral, Mayor David Miller and Premier Dalton McGuinty have, yet again called for a handgun ban. This time, their pleas seem to have some validity as the handgun in question appears to have been legally owned by a registered handgun owner.

The problem with the above is simple: while the shooter may have had a permit to own the gun, it was still an illegal gun at the time of the shooting. How's that? you say. In order to own a handgun, you must agree it will be in one of two places: at home, locked in a safe; at your gun club, locked in a safe. There are two exceptions to this rule: You may take it out at the gun club for target shooting; you may travel between the club and your home with the gun. In order to do the latter, you must go to the police, notify them of your intent to travel with the gun, and get a temporary travel permit, that allows you to drive with the gun in your vehicle between the two locations. That's it. Take the car, with the gun, to a strip club at 1:00 on a Saturday morning, and the gun is illegal. It is in a non-approved location. David Miller has said one of the reasons he wants a ban is if someone has a gun on them in the streets of Toronto, they can be arrested, no questions asked. That is true either way, if someone has a gun, then they are violating any permit they have, and can be arrested. No questions asked.

Proponents of a handgun ban use such baseless arguments all the time, and they do so for a reason. There is no evidence to suggest banning handguns will have any effect on violent crime. Some States have found letting more people carry guns around results in less violent crime. Britain has found banning the handgun went along with an increase in handgun use. Neither of which proves a pro handgun causation, but they do make a mockery of anti-handgun arguments. There is no reason to ban handguns.

But, some would argue, it can't hurt. There's no legitimate reason to own a handgun, so what have we got to lose? To which I would ask, when the handgun ban fails to decrease violence, which item will be next on the banned list? Which hobby next to be declared pointless? Which freedoms taken away for David Miller's political expediency? What possession of yours will the state confiscate because they have no interest in solving the problem?

Because that's what this is about, finding red herrings to yell about, finding bucks to pass instead of facing up the the real challenges of solving the problem. And when you ask what have we got to lose, the answer is, freedom.

Fun With Ezra Levant

Some funny stuff from The Nose on Your Face:

Top 9 Little Known Facts About Ezra Levant

9. Global warming began when Ezra Levant willed the temperature in Canada up a few degrees–you know, just to take the chill out of the air.

8. 95% of all monsters surveyed reported that they are either “absolutely terrified” or “hysterically afraid” of Ezra Levant. Levant already ate the remaining 5%.

7. Ezra Levant once looked Helen Thomas directly in the face and lived to tell about it.

6. (tie) Ezra Levant can grow a thicker mustache than both Tom Selleck and Rosie O’Donnell.

6. (tie) Ezra Levant is actually registered twice as a lethal weapon: once for himself and once for his aura.

5. Ezra Levant eats live cougars sprinkled with Jack Bauer, washes it down with a sandpaper and Chuck Liddell milkshake, and then wipes himself with Chuck Norris.

4. Ezra Levant got the gang from Scooby Doo to stop meddling. Singlehandedly.

3. Ezra Levant forced the band “Better Than Ezra” to change their name to “Alberta Human Rights Commission”: because no one is better than Ezra.

2. New studies show that Muslim suicide bombers aren’t sacrificing themselves for Allah, they’re just trying to escape the wrath of Ezra Levant.

1. If you ever find yourself being persecuted for your views by one of those politically correct government types, simply say “Ezra Levant” three times really fast. He will appear out of thin air and reduce the offender to a whimpering kitten in no time flat with his irresistible onslaught of crane-style verbal kung fu.

And the video version:



h/t Wendy

I believe that this commission has no proper authority over me.

I wish I had half the guts Ezra Levant has. Here is his opening statement to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, or as Ezra put it that " low-level, quasi-judicial body."

Go Ezra Go!

Alberta Human Rights Commission Interrogation
Opening remarks by Ezra Levant, January 11, 2008 – Calgary

My name is Ezra Levant. Before this government interrogation begins, I will make a statement.
When the Western Standard magazine printed the Danish cartoons of Mohammed two years ago, I was the publisher. It was the proudest moment of my public life. I would do it again today. In fact, I did do it again today. Though the Western Standard, sadly, no longer publishes a print edition, I posted the cartoons this morning on my website, ezralevant.com.

I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state. It is especially perverted that a bureaucracy calling itself the Alberta human rights commission would be the government agency violating my human rights. So I will now call those bureaucrats “the commission” or “the hrc”, since to call the commission a “human rights commission” is to destroy the meaning of those words.

I believe that this commission has no proper authority over me. The commission was meant as a low-level, quasi-judicial body to arbitrate squabbles about housing, employment and other matters, where a complainant felt that their race or sex was the reason they were discriminated against. The commission was meant to deal with deeds, not words or ideas. Now the commission, which is funded by a secular government, from the pockets of taxpayers of all backgrounds, is taking it upon itself to be an enforcer of the views of radical Islam. So much for the separation of mosque and state.

I have read the past few years’ worth of decisions from this commission, and it is clear that it has become a dump for the junk that gets rejected from the real legal system. I read one case where a male hair salon student complained that he was called a “loser” by the girls in the class. The commission actually had a hearing about this. Another case was a kitchen manager with Hepatitis-C, who complained that it was against her rights to be fired. The commission actually agreed with her, and forced the restaurant to pay her $4,900. In other words, the commission is a joke – it’s the Alberta equivalent of a U.S. television pseudo-court like Judge Judy – except that Judge Judy actually was a judge, whereas none of the commission’s panellists are judges, and some aren’t even lawyers. And, unlike the commission, Judge Judy believes in freedom of speech.

It’s bad enough that this sick joke is being wreaked on hair salons and restaurants. But it’s even worse now that the commissions are attacking free speech. That’s my first point: the commissions have leapt out of the small cage they were confined to, and are now attacking our fundamental freedoms. As Alan Borovoy, Canada’s leading civil libertarian, a man who helped form these commissions in the 60’s and 70’s, wrote, in specific reference to our magazine, being a censor is, quote, “hardly the role we had envisioned for human rights commissions. There should be no question of the right to publish the impugned cartoons.” Unquote. Since the commission is so obviously out of control, he said quote “It would be best, therefore, to change the provisions of the Human Rights Act to remove any such ambiguities of interpretation.” Unquote.

The commission has no legal authority to act as censor. It is not in their statutory authority. They’re just making it up – even Alan Borovoy says so.

But even if the commissions had some statutory fig leaf for their attempts at political and religious censorship, it would still be unlawful and unconstitutional.

We have a heritage of free speech that we inherited from Great Britain that goes back to the year 1215 and the Magna Carta. We have a heritage of eight hundred years of British common law protection for speech, augmented by 250 years of common law in Canada.

That common law has been restated in various fundamental documents, especially since the Second World War.

In 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Canada is a party, declared that, quote:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights guaranteed, quote

1. “ human rights and fundamental freedoms, namely,

(c) freedom of religion; (d) freedom of speech; (e) freedom of assembly and association; and (f) freedom of the press.

In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed, quote:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

a) freedom of conscience and religion;

b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

Those were even called “fundamental freedoms” – to give them extra importance.

For a government bureaucrat to call any publisher or anyone else to an interrogation to be quizzed about his political or religious expression is a violation of 800 years of common law, a Universal Declaration of Rights, a Bill of Rights and a Charter of Rights. This commission is applying Saudi values, not Canadian values.

It is also deeply procedurally one-sided and unjust. The complainant – in this case, a radical Muslim imam, who was trained at an officially anti-Semitic university in Saudi Arabia, and who has called for sharia law to govern Canada – doesn’t have to pay a penny; Alberta taxpayers pay for the prosecution of the complaint against me. The victims of the complaints, like the Western Standard, have to pay for their own lawyers from their own pockets. Even if we win, we lose – the process has become the punishment. (At this point, I’d like to thank the magazine’s many donors who have given their own money to help us fight against the Saudi imam and his enablers in the Alberta government.)

It is procedurally unfair. Unlike real courts, there is no way to apply for a dismissal of nuisance lawsuits. Common law rules of evidence don’t apply. Rules of court don’t apply. It is a system that is part Kafka, and part Stalin. Even this interrogation today – at which I appear under duress – saw the commission tell me who I could or could not bring with me as my counsel and advisors.

I have no faith in this farcical commission. But I do have faith in the justice and good sense of my fellow Albertans and Canadians. I believe that the better they understand this case, the more shocked they will be. I am here under your compulsion to answer the commission’s questions. But it is not I who am on trial: it is the freedom of all Canadians.

You may start your interrogation.

This ones for you Ezra:

I'm So (sob) Proud

I can't find the first instance, but this is the second time I have had to make such a post since I started blogging.

I beam with alma matic pride to report that Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton, where yours truly spent four years in absolute avoidance of toil, was locked down today due to a stabbing:

Peel Regional Police say a 16-year-old boy has been arrested after another boy was stabbed today inside a high school in Brampton, Ont.

Const. J.P. Valade says the 16-year-old victim, who is not a student at Chinguacousy Secondary School, was stabbed four times in the neck and side at about 9:45 a.m.

The victim was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening but serious injuries.

Const. Jodi Dawson says the suspect, who was arrested inside the school, is a Chinguacousy student.

The school was locked down as police searched the area. Police say there may be more suspects.

How times have changed: when I went there they never locked the school down after a knife fight.

This Week On My i-pod: Kid Rock and Roll Jesus

It's not supposed to be this way, I'm not supposed to like Kid Rock. He's a jerk, in the news for fights at awards shows and pancake houses. His trailer mansion is in the same park as Britney's, he married that perennial tramp Pam Anderson. I'm not supposed to like him. I recall the first time I watched the movie Snatch, Guy Ritchie's movie about Irish gypsies. The only thing anyone told me about it was it was Guy Ritchie, and it was good. I was determined not to like any movie by the guy who married Madonna. Nuh-huh wasn't going to happen. So what happened? I loved it, it's now one of my favourite movies. And so it is with Kid Rock: not going to like him, no way, no how, nuh-huh girlfriend. I was even told by reliable sources that I wouldn't like Kid Rock. So how come I like Rock and Roll Jesus so much? How come it is one the best albums I've heard in a long time?

Rock and Roll Jesus starts off with 4 of the best songs in a row that I've heard on a CD in years. Like last years surprise gem, Bon Jovi's Lost Highway, the cross between rock and roll and country works very well. Title track Rock and Roll Jesus is a straight up rocker, with an intro drum pull that is a lift of Bob Seger's Ramblin' Gamblin' Man. I've listened to this album enough to know it's not accidental, and it's not a steal, more homage being paid. We then move into Amen, a pretty little piece that again, lifts Bob Seger in the opening bars, this time the acoustic guitar track from Against the Wind.

From there we get into All Summer Long, a direct tribute, both lyrically and musically to Sweet Home Alabama. While using the basic song structure of SHA, All Summer Long, uses a piano up front, making it exactly Werewolves of London. The congruity between that and Sweet home Alabama is dynamic, and makes a really good third song. Lynyrd Skynyrd pianist Billy Powell even shows up to reprise his Sweet Home Alabama piano solo. Lyrically, Kid again pays a little homage de Seger, referencing a "Northern Michigan Summertime."

The fourth song of the album Roll On is a mid tempo feel good song about growing older, even while having the privilege of not having to act it. It has a great sing a long melody and hooks you in, much like Shawn Mullin's Shimmer or James Blunt's Billy:

Money and success
I don't complain about the stress
I wanted this and now it's here
So I don't bitch
And I swear that time's a trick
It disappears in oh so quick
Man I was just sixteen
And now I'm starin' at thirty-six
But I'm still havin' a good time

Roll on Roll on Roller Coaster
We're one day older and one step closer
Roll on there's mountains to climb
Roll on we're on borrowed time
Roll on Roller coaster
Roll on tonight

Special Mention must be given to Blue Jeans and a Rosary, a beautiful piece written from, presumably, Kid Rocks past:

All my life I've been searchin'
All my life I've been uncertain
I been abandoned and left alone
At fifteen I had to leave home
The black sheep, the bad seed

At a roadside bar in Tennessee
I met an angel to rescue me
She rescued me
She wore blue jeans and a rosary
Believed in God and believed in me
All her friends think she's a little crazy
She wears a smile, heart on her sleeve
Don't give a damn what the world thinks of me
She tells me it's all good
She's happy with a bad seed
Happy to be misunderstood

Two packs and a pint a day
To hide the shame
And wash away the pain
Aww the pain
Every road was a dead-end street
Runnin' from the law
And runnin' on empty
You couldn't shake the marks that were left on me

At a roadside bar in Tennessee
I met an angel to rescue me
She rescued me

She wore blue jeans and a rosary
Believed in God and believed in me
All her friends think she's a little crazy
She wears a smile, heart on her sleeve
Don't give a damn what the world thinks of me
She tells me it's all good
She's happy with a bad seed
Happy to be misunderstood

Nicely written, nicely performed and worth the price of the CD.

Also worth mentioning is Kid Rocks piece for ex-wife Pam Anderson, Half Your Age. I love when rock and roll gets nasty (Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Rod Stewart's You Got a Nerve come to mind), and this is some of the nastiest, especially considering it's no secret who it was written about:

I found someone new who treats me better
She don't bitch about things we ain't got
When I sing this tune it don't upset her
She's half your age and twice as hot

Oh she wakes up every morning and she folds my clothes
Doesn't care about the strippers dancing at my shows
She knows that I love her so I just wanted you to know

I found someone new who treats me better
She don't bitch about things we ain't got
When I sing this tune it don't upset her
She's half your age and twice as hot

Oh she don't start trouble cuz she dont need drama
She likes it in the mornin' and she loves my momma
I'm her big poppa an she's my little rock n roll...

Nasty, funny, and great rock and roll.

This CD is full of interesting, introspective songs that pay homage to those who came before. While it has a couple of pieces I don't like, and don't like them a lot, they are two or three songs out of twelve. They keep this CD from being a great one, but none the less, boy it's pretty good. And that's more than I ever expected from Kid Rock.

Saturday Fluffernutter: Wisdom of Posh; Nicole's Baby; Davinci's Lisa; Sir Edmund Hillary 1919 - 2008.

The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.

Today, a tidbit of knowledge from Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham:

"We spend a lot of time socializing at home so we don't get photographed. I couldn't live a life where I was under the spotlight everyday. If you look at someone like Britney Spears, I couldn't do that. I've got to have my privacy at home with my husband and my children. Otherwise, I'd end up going loopy."

Unlike say, Britney Spears, who seems to have handled it all so well.

Meet the latest Bond Girl, Gemma Arterton

Gemma, who is currently filming "Bond 22" with Daniel Craig, is best known for her role as Kelly in the recently released comedy St Trinians.

Congratulations to Nicole Ritchie who gave birth to a girl last night. The father is Joel Madden, singer for the band Good Charlotte.

Led Zeppelin story of the week, courtesy of Ramble On: It was happy birthday to both bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (62) and guitarist Jimmy Page (64) this week. I wish them both lots of time together in the coming year.

Has the Mona Lisa been identified? Viet Probst, German Art expert claims to know the identy of the mystery woman in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting. The model? The wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, Lisa Gherardini.

The Mona Lisa currently hangs at the Louvre in Paris. It is the most sought piece at the Louvre, but for my money, this was the best piece:

Veronese, Paolo (1528-1588): The wedding at Cana.

Sad to report the death of Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 - 2008). While most famous for being the first to climb mount Everest, his coolest feat must be being in the party that was the first to reach the south pole via motorized vehicle (a gerry-rigged tractor from what I can make out). The world need more men reaching for heights like Sir Edmund, less like me sitting in the basement writing about it.

Who's Money is it Anyway?

The Royal Canadian Mint will not be charging the city of Toronto for using the likeness of a penny in it's one-cent tax refund campaign last year. The mint owns the trademark for Candian currency, and had invoiced the city of Toronto for daring to use their trademark themselves:

...a taxpayer-owned corporation licensed to make money -- literally and for profit -- the mint insists it must protect trademarks just like any other business.

Even "50 Cent" rapper Curtis Jackson registered his stage name in Canada.

"Everyone should understand that they can't get a free ride from the mint when it comes to them using our intellectual property," Reeves said.

But hold on one minute. It's not the mints money, it's not the mints trademark - it's ours. Canadians. Every damn one of us. Much like the Borque-poppy incident a couple of Novembers ago, the mint only holds any trademark in trust for Canadians, not to use against us. It is our symbol, not theirs.

As such:

Next they'll be telling us we can't use the Canadian flag.

Happy 64th Birthday...

...Jimmy Page. And thanks for the memory.

See you in the fall.

David Frum: Pigovian

Who'd of thunk it? But David Frum has, in his newest book Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, come out in favour of a Pigovian Tax. To start, here's a primer on Arthur C. Pigou, from Terence Corcoran's NoPigou Club:

Arthur C. Pigou was an early 20th-century British economist, one of the fathers of welfare economics. He believed governments can shape policy for the better by raising taxes on bad things and subsidizing good ones.

Pigovian taxes these days tend to mean a carbon tax. Everybody seem to be on board except, thankfully, our current government. The idea is tempting, replace current taxes with taxes on carbon, thereby allowing you to lower your tax load by conserving energy. Except governments first and foremost protect government revenue. It is simply what they do, as evidenced by Toronto Hydro's rate hike last March:

...last weeks Toronto hydro rate increases being a classic example what's wrong with using the tax system. As customers have reduced, Hydro's profits have decreased, thus they increase rates. The next step is to ask yourself, why should I conserve?

And Terence Corcoran has an article today, Carbon Tax Looks Like Roadkill, suggesting some of the problems with a carbon tax. Chief among them is that nobody is being even remotely honest about how high a carbon tax would have to be to be effective. If I've said it once, I've said it five or six times, here in Canada sixty cents a litre is the starting point for serious carbon reduction; Corcoran makes a case that it would be more.

So what has come over David Frum? I will quote from an excerpt of his new book, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, that appeared in the National Post last Friday. I have not found a link to the excerpt, so you'll have to trust me on the contents, or go buy the book and check it yourself:

Oil is a globally traded commodity. There is a world oil market, one world price. If Iran uses its oil revenues to underwrite a nuclear program, what does it matter whether those revenues are denominated in dollars, euros or yen? If Osama Bin Laden were to seize control of the Saudi state, would it console us that comparatively little of his oil wealth derived from U.S. sources?

While increased North American oil production would be helpful, only substitution and conservation can achieve the important national security goal of reducing the power of unreliable oil suppliers...

There is a simpler and better way to encourage consumers to conserve while denying income to producers: Tax those forms of energy that present political and environmental risks - and exempt those that do not...

That is, surprisingly from David Frum, a Pigovian tax scheme. But I'm still not buying.

John Tory Not Going Quietly Into The Night

Am I the only one wishing Tory would have fought like hell to win the past election?

I say to them (his detractors) that I'm going to fight like hell to keep my job because I believe I can do that job best and that I can be a better premier than Dalton McGuinty in 2011.

Or maybe that was all the fight Tory has, in which case unseating him should be a breeze. I liked this bit best:

I have acknowledged and taken responsibility for mistakes that I made and mistakes that others made because I'm the leader...

If a leader acknowledges and takes responsibility for mistakes that lost an election, is he still the leader? Of course not, that's what taking responsibility means in this case - resigning.

All through the election, I heard how once the electorate got to know John Tory, they would like John Tory. So why do I find I like him less and less as time goes on?

Picture of the Day - House of the Holy

This Week on my i-pod: The Return of Zeppelin

Finally, the name of this feature matches the reality. That is to say, I actually own an Apple i-pod for my personal music experience, instead of the RCA Lyra I have been using the past three years. There was nothing wrong with the Lyra, you understand, it's just that I called this feature "This week on my i-pod," and it has always felt false. Well now I have a shiny new 80gig video i-pod that Santa left under my tree, and I can get back to a bit of feature writing. The nice thing is, I can also now expand this feature to include videos, TV shows I may be watching, movies, music videos, take your pick, and I'm sure I will.

This week however, it's music I'm interested in writing about. More Led Zeppelin if you can stand it. Not long after the London concert on Dec 10th, recordings of the show started popping up in the usual places. So far, three recordings, and a couple of incomplete videos have turned up. The videos suffer from their incompletion, and being recorded on devices less suitable for that purpose than would be preferred. The audio recordings, however, have been the real disappointments. In an age when incredible live recordings are being distributed on the internet, when recording devices have gotten so good, the first two recordings of the Dec 10 Led Zeppelin show are worse than some of the shows people recorded with smuggled in tape recorders in the 1970's - even the early 70's in some cases.

The third recording, however, is a great improvement, if not a great recording just yet. It is extremely listenable, with fairly clear sound and little distortion. Called the trainspotter recording, it is this recording that made it's way to my i-pod (note: another apparently better, recording has since emerged).

It's a fun feeling listening to a live show that you were at, especially one so memorable as the Led Zeppelin reunion, which one critic called the greatest rock show ever. After the show you often try to remember some part, a song or what the singer said, and listening after allows you to review it in a calmer way. It also, however, helps you re-live the moment. And when a moment was as good, as special as Dec 10 at the 02 arena, it's great to be able to sit in work re-living it as often as possible (I even have some pictures from the show on my i-pod). That is the magic of modern technology.

And magic is the right word: The i-pod itself is magic, but the moment, the show was pure magic, and reliving it while drudging away my time at work, there's a trick I would be impressed if Harry Potter could duplicate.

Saturday Fluffernutter: Britney's Meltdown Part III; Zeppelin's Drummer; Keira's Dress. And K-Daddy, never forget K-Daddy.

The nutty stories from the fluffy world of celebrities.

Britney Spears flipped her wig again this week, locking herself in her bathroom with her kids when Kevin Federline's bodyguards showed up to return the kids to him. After a four hour standoff with authorities, Britney was sent to hospital strapped to a gurney, and is reported to be under suicide watch.

She is also being evaluated by mental health professionals, where they are likely to find she's not insane, just a celebrity.

My favourite part of the Britney saga is a small bit in a story about Britney's lawyers quitting her business, in which the story refers to her ex as "K-Daddy." From now on, Mr. Federline will be known in these pages as K-Daddy, it's beautiful.

And speaking of K-Daddy, what kind of clown sends his bodyguards to pick up his children from a visitation? Who is really looking after these kids? It's been said before, but bears repeating. You know Britney Spears is a really bad mother when he's the good parent of the couple.

I love Keira Knightly, I really do. But the suggestion that her green dress from Atonement is more iconic than Marilyn Monroe's in The Seven Year Itch and Audrey Hepburn’s black dress from Breakfast At Tiffany’s makes me want to send a dictionary to the editors of SkyMovies and Instyle magazine, with the word iconic underlined. Below are the three dresses, you decide which one falls into icon status.


Zeppelin Rumour of the week, courtesy of Ramble On.

It appears what Dave Grohl wants, Dave Grohl gets. Dave Grohl wants to drum for Led Zeppelin, so the music media have deemed it so. Dave is in, Jason Bonham out, all because it's what Dave Grohl really, really wants.

I like Dave Grohl too, he seems like a nice guy, but anyone who thinks it's Jason Bonham holding Zeppelin back from a tour is delusional. And he was excellent at the Dec 10 show, so there is no musical reason to replace him. Sorry Dave, you have no more claim to the Zeppelin drum chair than I do to a rhythm guitar slot with the boys.

The Three Tenors have decided not to continue without third tenor Luciano Pavoratti, who passed away in Spetember from pancreatic cancer:

For Placido (Domingo) and myself (Jose Carreras) to do something would betray the memory of Luciano, I don't think that would be ethical.

Yea Yea, Led Zeppelin said the same thing back in 1980. Give them 27 years, and they'll be right back out there.

Picture of the Day - The Millenium Wheel

Do Dalton's Liberals Think Anything Through?

File under if these guys were Conservatives...

Joanne, over at Joanne's Journey, has been posting about the new Dalton-day here in Ontario. Family Day was granted unto Ontarions the day after the election last fall, as a gracious payoff for electing the Liberals without them having to earn it. It is a statutory holiday that will fall on the third Monday of February every year (Feb 18 this year). The problem is there was no consultation with affected groups. If you are unionized and have a collective bargaining agreement, chances are you are out of luck for the holiday, or will give up a far nicer floating holiday.

Unmentioned in many reports on this is many companies have contracts to fulfil and are returning to those with whom they have contracts trying to renegotiate deadlines. Others, who supply just in time parts, will have no choice but to operate. This is, in short, a big headache for the manufacturing sector, which is supposedly already in crisis.

Where's the CAW crack protest squad when they can be useful?

If this was it, one bad law rushed through, it could be ignored Unfortunately it's becoming Dalton's MO. Consider the street racing law. To combat street racing, anyone going more than 50KM an hour over the speed limit automatically loses their licence and car for a week and face a minimum fine of $2,000. Which takes us to Wednesday:

An 85-year-old motorist lost his licence and his Oldsmobile for a week and likely faces a hefty fine after becoming the oldest person snagged to date by Ontario's stringent crackdown on street racers and highway speed demons.

The man, whose name was not released, was making his way Wednesday along Highway 407 north of Toronto when he was allegedly clocked doing 161 kilometres an hour -- 61 km/h over the posted speed limit.

An 85 year old man, who was going shopping, is now a street racer. Casting a rather wide net , aren't we Dalton?

While the top two are examples of laws that got rushed through, and are thus carelessly written, the following example was, in fact, a long drawn out process. Back on September 17th a new law came into effect that would open adoption records. The government took a couple of years, heard many different views, ridiculed the dissenting ones, and passed the law they wanted all along. This law did not have a crucial "disclosure veto," that allowed somebody to opt out of having their private information passed along if they specifically requested it. Other jurisdictions have had such laws previously, and the disclosure veto was never an issue. But to the Ontario Liberals, it was an issue. Against the advice of their own privacy commissioner, they went ahead and passed the law sans veto.

Within two days, Two Days! of the laws assent, it was struck down on September 19th by an Ontario Court of Justice, specifically because it did not have a disclosure veto. New legislation was introduced in December that includes the crucial veto.

Three examples of laws passed by Dalton McGuinty's Liberals, three examples of poorly thought out laws, in two cases hastily done. There must be a better way to govern.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist

"I had a premature detonantion..."



The guy with Achmed is Jeff Dunham.

Happy 62nd Birthday...

John Paul Jones.

He is the guy who stands under the ride cymbal of a couple of gentlemen named Bonham: he is soft spoken, has a bass guitar sound that growls and plays keyboards as if he's a conductor and the keys his orchestra.

He put the mellow in the yellow and the Led in the Zeppelin, he is the steady force that allows Jimmy Page the freedom to be the best rock guitarist in the world, and he is, hopefully, coming soon to a town near you.

Happy John Paul Jones, and may your 62nd year be spent touring with your old pals.

Time for a New Ontario Tory Leader

For those who think that Ontario Conservatives need a new leader if they are ever to win an election, there is a web page set up to further the end of getting rid of John Tory as the leader of the Ontario PC party.

Nick Kouvalis has set up a web page Draft a Leader to push Tories to lose the present leader, hereto known as 'Red'. As I have stated before, if Red is in, then I am out. So I believe it behoves me to give Nick his props. Nick, along with Paul from Blue Blogging Soapbox, have also set up a facebook page, for those who are members/addicts.

Good luck guys, and if there's anything I can do...