Day By Day Cartoon


Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Oh this is just rich

As if George Galloway wasn't already in enough trouble.

I know a visit to the axeman is out of the question, but do they still lock people convicted of High Treason up in the Tower Of London?

I hope so.

Update: When people would rather get rid of you than Dennis Rodman, you know your time is up.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

"...what's better: slightly biased coverage? Or no coverage at all?"

Simply the best article on the state of military reporting in Iraq I've read.

And before anyone thinks this guy's a flack for Dubya, read the rest of the site. He's been down on the Iraq war since day one, but sometimes, the truth will out.

A job well done

The military's primary vehicle armoring center in Iraq is closing. Everything that can be armored either already is, or is coming over to Iraq with armor installed.

From zero to everything in just over two years.

Not bad.

And for those that say "But we should have had that from day one! Rumsey lied, soldiers died!", take a moment to look up how quickly the military responded to similar problems in the past. It took years to figure out how to bomb Germany without horrendous losses in aircraft, how to defeat the Zero, how to defend against the 88mm gun. Heck, they never did figure out how to effectively get around the machine gun in World War One. By all previous standards, the Army's response to IED's has been lightning-quick.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Shut up. Don't sing.

I just watched George Clooney pull a Vanessa Redgrave on tonight's Golden Globe telecast, and while Will Wheaton may disagree, put me down as one who's tried of hearing actors of all stripes pontificating about politics every time a microphone is shoved in their face.

Look, Will, it's simple. You have a job to do, and that's act in movies, plays, etc., and that's all. If I were to make a comment at my job about the political ramifications of IBM selling it's PC business to a country with a long history of abusing human rights, I'd be fired that day. You, and other actors/musicians/entertainers/whatever CAN do just that, and not get fired. Forgive me if I think you should play by the same rules as the rest of us slobs.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Terry McAuliffe's available...

Nevermind that the Liberals are sinking faster than a colander in the ocean, according to Pierre Ladouceur, they're just now beginning to hit their stride.

"Liberal strategists believe they can turn around the last week of the campaign by continuing to broadcast their attack ads and going hard after Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, hoping that something will stick."

Ummn, should someone tell them that people are already going to polls in droves. And their attack ads have resulted in a 10-point Tory lead.

Captain Ed has more
.

Friday, January 13, 2006

al-Zawahiri dead?

Let's hope so.

And given this little nugget:

"And, according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year's message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time."

It could be lights-out for Al-qaeda.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Do as I say, not as I do

Jack Layton, the head of Canada's decidedly left-of-centre New Democratic Party has long been a champion of Canada's socialized medical system and has fiercely resisted any attempt to introduce widespread private medicine in the country.

So what happened when he needed hernia surgery in the mid-90's?

He goes to a private clinic, of course.

Monday, January 09, 2006

They don't get it

Count me in with Murdoc and DefenseTech.org on this one. The recent flap over injuries and death from "insufficient body armour" is just another incident of legacy media not getting it, something I've noted before.

While I've never had anything more dangerous than paintballs fired at me in anger, even that experience taught me there's no protection like hard cover. A wall or something that stops the rounds headed your way is more valuable than any armoured vest, and the difference a more bulky vest would make in getting behind cover fast would result in even more deaths, if the truth were told.

But that doesn't make for good copy. Weeping mothers talking about how the military let their boy died does. And as long as that takes precendence over the actual story, the legacy media is going to get it wrong.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Speak the truth to power

What happens when a veteran just back from Afghanistan confronts two of the more outspoken critics of the military in Congress?

A nice little smackdown of two pompous gasbags, that's what.

You'd think that if you were in a position of power, "supporting the troops" would include acknowledging their service when they return, wouldn't you?

And you'd be wrong.

This is your defence policy.

After reviewing the Conservative Party's plans for the Canadian military, The Canadian-American Studies Group did the right thing and reviewed the other Canadian political party's military plans.

Which brought up this little gem:

"At the time of writing, no defence policy position or commentary was apparent on the Marijuana Party of Canada website. Searching under ‘International Relations’, the results said, “No articles were found”. Searching under ‘Politics’, results showed French articles only (none defence-related). Under ‘Miscellaneous’, results reported “Internal Server Error”."

This is your defence policy on drugs.

Any questions?

:-)

Pick your poison

Mark Steyn, genius that he is, has some very interesting thoughts on demographics and the future of European culture. He paints a very gloomy picture for Western Europe, and I got thinking about these paragraphs in his article:


"What's the better bet? A globalization that exports cheeseburgers and pop songs or a globalization that exports the fiercest aspects of its culture? When it comes to forecasting the future, the birthrate is the nearest thing to hard numbers. If only a million babies are born in 2006, it's hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 (or 2033, or 2037, or whenever they get around to finishing their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees). And the hard data on babies around the Western world is that they're running out a lot faster than the oil is. "Replacement" fertility rate--i.e., the number you need for merely a stable population, not getting any bigger, not getting any smaller--is 2.1 babies per woman. Some countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Somalia, is 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afghanistan 6.78, Yemen 6.75. Notice what those nations have in common?

Scroll way down to the bottom of the Hot One Hundred top breeders and you'll eventually find the United States, hovering just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canada's fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. "

Go and read the whole thing, then come back here.

Ok, glad you're back.

So among developed nations, The U.S. isn't doing so bad as far as birth rate goes, and we have our growing Latino community to thank for that. The Latino community in the U.S. is bursting at the seams, and more are coming every day.

Now, at this point, a certain portion of the G.O.P. is about to undergo brain lockup. Sorry 'bout that Laura, but here's some hard facts that you're going to have to face, sooner or later.

Is this immigration a bad thing? Compare our immigrant situation with Britain's. I'm guessing that most of the Latinos coming here won't want Islamic law to be the norm, as is the case with Muslims in Britain. Latino immigrants come from a Judeo-Christian heritage and are at least familiar with the concepts of democracy, free press and a diversity of opinions, something that can't be said for 90% of the Muslim countries in the world.

For all the huff and puff about illegal immigration (and as a legal immigrant to the U.S., I am NOT a big fan of those who subvert the onerous rules my family had to abide by to get here), it's those people that are shoring up the foundations of our culture and society in the U.S.

Long after Western Civilization is gone from Western Europe, the U.S. will have a culture of diversity, tolerance and respect for religous freedom, thanks to the influence of the growing Latino community. Rather than chasitize them, we should embrace them, for they are our future.