The R Rated Blogger

Belinda Stronach, multimillionaire divorcée and recent minister of the Crown, likes sex. She likes athletes' good, hard bodies. Acquaintances say she's partial to younger men. And, being a dude magnet, she appears able to come-hither any hunk who catches her eye.

I wasn't sure if I was reading the The Globe And Mail or The National Enquirer. If you are not above checking out gossip like me, check out the article here. The article is free, but you have to register.

Interesting tidbit from the Francophonie summit

Harper was seated beside Quebec Premier Jean Charest at the news conference, but Charest seemed cool to his federal counterpart. Harper, French President Jacques Chirac, Romanian President Traian Basescu and Francophonie Secretary-General Abdou Diouf all entered the news conference together, but Charest followed about three minutes later.

They act like they don't even know each other. Kind of what I do with my ex.

Harper is making waves at the Francophonie summit



Canada’s rookie prime minister vetoed an amendment that said the 53-member organization “deplored” the effect of the month-long conflict on the Lebanese civilians it endangered. The amendment, which didn't mention Israeli civilians, was brought forward by the Egyptian delegation and backed by “a majority” of countries at the table, according to French President Jacques Chirac. Harper said he couldn't support the amendment because it didn't recognize that losses were suffered by civilians on both sides. “The amendment wants to recognize and deplore the war and recognize the victims of Lebanon. We are able to deplore the war, we are able to recognize the victims, but on both sides,” Harper said at a news conference. “The Francophonie cannot recognize victims according to their nationality. Recognize the victims of Lebanon and the victims of Israel.”

Harper blocks Lebanon resolution
Harper says Canada pulling its weight around the world
Countries need to do more in the world, Harper tells Francophonie
Canada hopes Francophonie snub to Lebanon will be 'corrected'

I was pretty sure the terrorists don't have a navy, or there were pirates in the great lakes. But what the hell?

The United States Coast Guard have started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and are conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat.

Social Conservatives are lobbying and the Canadian government is listening.


source

Stephen Harper has managed to avoid divisive topics like gay marriage and abortion, but that does not mean he isn’t appeasing his religious right followers. He managed to quietly pass at least three issues straight from the right wing lobby group REAL Women of Canada by cutting the Court Challenges Program, the Status of Women, and instituting direct payments to parents rather than Universal Daycare.

This budget scrapes the Court Challenge Program -- a program instituted to help fund court costs for constitutional challenges. This program has been widely attacked by REAL and some Christian groups

Scrapping the CCP may have long term implications should a majority Conservative government decided to repeal laws allowing abortion or gay marriage. By cutting the CCP the government may be able to prevent any serious court challenges as most groups would be unable to afford court expenses.

Also alarming was REAL's effective attack on the Status of Women. Unhappy that they had received little to no funding from the Status of Women, they decided to attack the fund. They organized an intensive lobbying campaign amongst their membership claiming among other issues that the Status of Women funding was unfairly distributed to women’s shelter across Canada, stating that in 2001, there were 344 incidents per 100,000 women, and for men, there were 62 incidents for every 100,000 - the latter is up 40% from six years ago. Although there were many more incidents of assault against women, this does not mean that men should be neglected.(April 4, 2006)

Finally, Harper also made another concession to REAL when he eliminated the plan for universal daycare in favour of his $100 a month cash for kids scheme. A program some argue favours affluent stay-at-home mothers, rather than the majority of women who must work and barely manage to pay for child care. Furthermore, Universal daycare, as well as, providing an affordable alternative for most parents would have also created employment for many women who make up the majority of child care givers.

As a minority government the Conservatives have still managed to quietly promote their anti-women agenda. Paving the way for more drastic attacks on individual right should they achieve a majority government in the future.

In an interview with CBC, Pakistanian president Pervez Musharraf had this to say about Canada when he was criticized that Pakistan is not doing their part in stopping the Taliban and other terrorists.

"We have suffered 500 casualties, Canadians may have suffered four or five. You suffer two dead and there's a cry and shout all around the base that there are coffins. Well, we've had 500 coffins."

Actually, there are 36 dead Canadian soldiers. But that's besides the point.

If you missed The Daily Show with Jon Stewart yesterday, Musharaff stopped by for some twinkies and tea. They also got around to talking about his new book, In the Line of Fire: A Memoir and the war on terror. You can watch the video here



The last exchange between Jon Stewart and Musharaff is pretty funny.

So Conrad Black is actually taking action to get his Canadian Citizenship back.



"I always said that I would take my citizenship back, and if it wasn't for all these legal problems, I would have done it by now," Lord Black told journalist Steve Paikin. "But I'm working on it, going through the normal channels like everyone else."

But didn't he once say his Canadian Citizenship was "an impediment to my progress in another more amenable jurisdiction (Britain)."

So are his current actions more amenable to progress in another jurisdiction. Namely the charges he faces in United States. I bet you he will get his citizenship before I get my replacement card back.

Oh yeah, he is also claiming to be a freedom fighter these days.

"I have settled into my new life as a freedom fighter. It's very interesting and it's quite stimulating, in a way, but it is an ordeal."

I am not sure fighting criminal charges relating to allegations that you and your former executives of Hollinger International Inc. took more than $80-million from a newspaper company counts as a freedom fighter.

I was a kid when the Air India bombing occurred, so I don't remember much about it. Reading up on it recently, I was surprised to find out that prior to 9/11, the Air India bombing was the single deadliest terrorist attack involving an aircraft. Furthermore, it is the largest mass murder to occur in Canadian history, of the 329 on board that were killed, 280 were Canadians.

"The Air India tragedy is Canada's 9/11. Imagine how much it hurts when people speak of 9/11 as the world's most significant act of aviation terrorism, deleting the Air India bombing from our collective memories. The Air India bombing was a dastardly act of revenge conceived on Canadian soil by Canadians against Canadians."

I find it sad that even after 21 years the Government Of Canada has ignored the families of the Air India victims. No form of counselling, support or an apology has been issued by the Canadian government.

"The Government of Canada did not set up any information line and did not offer any other administrative or emotional help immediately or any time thereafter. Instead we heard that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sent condolences to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi"

I wonder if it would have made a difference if the victims were "Pure Canadian". Seriously why would Mulroney sent condolences to the Indian PM when the 280 were Canadians?

Only after searching Wikipedia did I find out that June 23rd is the national day of mourning for Air India victims. But that was declared 20 years after the fact.

Air India grief ignored, families say
Air India victims' families recall their despair
Air-India probe aims to prevent future attacks
Air India witness describes impact of wife's death

It seems like I am linking Media Matters on every post today.

This was a quote from Tucker Carlson back in December 2005 after former Canadian prime minister Paul Martin criticized the US' global environmental policies.



Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada.

He was back at it again last friday calling us retarded.

"My goal is to expose and defeat people who have the power to do you great harm. My weapons will be facts and superior analysis based on those facts...expose the secular-progressive movement in our country for exactly what it is, to explain why it is so harmful for America, and to identify the movement's top leaders."

If the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) made it on Bill O'Reilly's enemies list, then they must be doing something right. Ditto for Jon Stewart.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Canada for the past 3 days. The purpose of his visit was to thank Canadians for their commitment and sacrifices they have made in Afghanistan. Yesterday he was in Montreal and gave a speech in front of the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

"Your contribution as Canadians to Afghanistan stands for a cause bigger than Afghanistan, for a cause that relates to all of us in the world as the fellow citizens of the world."

I hope this is not the cause the Canadian soldiers are there for.

It's not like they had nothing better to do.

A majority of Canadians believe U.S. foreign policy was one of the root causes that led to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and Quebecers are quicker to criticize the U.S. administration for its international actions than other Canadians, a recent poll suggests.

...

The poll suggests that 77 per cent of Quebecers polled primarily blame American foreign policy for the Sept. 11 attacks. The results suggest 57 per cent in Ontario hold a similar view.

Source

Bush Docudrama gets the front page of the National Post.

Can somebody tell me why are we doing the dirty work for the Americans? Personally I preferred our roles as the UN bitches, the peace keepers. This is the role that makes the Canadians pretty much welcome in any part of the globe.

So here's to you Jack Layton for saying something that's been on my mind for awhile.



Canada should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as soon as possible, NDP Jack Layton demanded Thursday.

"This is not the right mission for Canada," Layton told reporters at a news conference.

Layton said the mission in Afghanistan is not making the world a safer place and, with no end in sight, he wants troops home by February 2007 at the latest.

Layton said the current mission has no clear mandate, no criteria to measure its success, no timeline and no exit strategy.

"We believe we should bring our troops back," he said.

Layton accused the Harper government of "blindly following" the lead of the Bush administration when making foreign policy decisions.

"It’s time once again for a made-in-Canada foreign policy … it’s time for Canada to reclaim its place in the world," Layton said.

Parliament narrowly voted in May to extend Canada’s mission in Afghanistan to 2009; the NDP opposed the motion.

Layton prefaced his call for troops to come home by saying that not supporting the mission in Afghanistan doesn’t mean a lack of support for Canadian military.