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Nobody seems to be saying this outright yet, so I’ll say it for all of us that are thinking it:

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So the USA is up to $1.6 TRILLION dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And that’s just the dollars that have been spent, to say nothing of the human toll that these wars have exacted - on all sides. And though we may mourn more deeply for those we have lost to this fight, we cannot forget the innocent lives that have needlessly been lost.

The object of fighting any War is to gain security. In this regard, I did and still do believe that we have done the right thing in Afghanistan. The right thing is not always the easy thing, but to deprive Al-Qaeda of their Taliban protectors and to attempt to return Afghanistan to the community of nations is a noble effort. We harbour no doubts that Afghanistan was the staging ground for numerous attacks, including those of September 11, 2001.

I also believe that the USA had to hit back after those attacks. To sit idle or to engage in protracted diplomacy would have sent the wrong message to those who would wish harm to the USA and its allies.

But Iraq, well, that’s an entirely different kettle of fish.
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This sketch is from “The Ronnie Johns Half-Hour”, a show on Australia’s Ten Network. They’ve done a lot of really funny stuff, but this sketch is perhaps one of the funniest I’ve ever seen.

Warning: Coarse language and hilarious sexual references.

Recently there was a study released that 55% of Canadians want to keep the penny. Well, as one of that other 45%, I intend to vote with my pocket - my considerably lighter pocket - by not taking pennies any more.

That’s right. When I pay with cash, if my change is $1.59, I won’t take the four or nine pennies that will be foisted upon me.

It’s not like the “Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny” tray you see in a lot of places, where you take your pennies and toss them in there. No, this is a more powerful statement than that, it’s “I say No to Pennies.”

So, say no to pennies. You can have a whole pocket full of the things and still not be able to buy a stick of gum, so let’s just ditch the things and move on with our lives. The more of us that don’t want pennies, the less pennies will be needed, and the less it will cost us all anyway.

Time to inject a little levity back into this place. Enjoy.

Last night I watched the execution video of Robert Dziekanski. I call it an execution video because that’s what it was. And I’m a Canadian Citizen, so I feel I can speak on this with impunity.

People who know me would tell you that I’m rarely at a loss for words, but watching this video - of a man who wasn’t threatening anyone and merely needed assistance - disgusts me. It just disgusts me.

Yes, he was agitated. Yes, he was sweating. Shit, if I’d just spent 10 hours sitting in an airport after being on an aircraft (for the first time, I understand) for who-knows-how-long from Poland, I might be agitated myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, you have to give it up for some marketing efforts. Volkswagen are running an advertisement right now that shows you how to start their Passat model with any one of your five digits.

Unfortunately, choosing the middle finger (and taking a quick screenshot) probably doesn’t convey the message they wanted.

So, not only was the famous SIM card not in the truck that crashed into Glasgow Airport - as had been asserted by the Australian Federal Police - but the person found in possession of it (Sabeel Ahmed) has not been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation. He’s been charged with withholding information, but I sense that might be a tough case to make.

Either way, how can Mohamed Haneef be charged with the support of a terrorist organisation if he plainly did not do that? There’s no linkage here, and this case is getting weaker by the second.

On the one hand you’ve got a seemingly innocent young doctor that just wanted to go and visit his family, and on the other you have a government (and seemingly also a police service) that is absolutely hell-bent on getting someone for something, damnit!

I mean, the man even tried to telephone an investigator in the UK FOUR TIMES. Four times! Does that sound like a guy that wants to run away? Not to me, it doesn’t.

Even if Dr. Haneef’s visa were now reinstated, I doubt he’d want to stay in Australia. But it should be reinstated so he at least can get out on bail while this circus winds itself up. And, further to that, I believe that the Australian Government owes this man an apology. If he’s a terrorist, let’s see the evidence. But I don’t think giving a soon-to-expire SIM card to a family member should be an offence in any legal system.

And don’t even get me started on Ruddock announcing he was going to review the conditions of bail for terrorist suspects. How can you call yourself a free country when you can lock people up - indefinitely - for nothing? (Oh, wait, I guess you could call yourself the USA.)

Set the man free.

This article represents my personal opinions. It is also hosted on a web server in the United States of America, and is thus protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as Free Speech.

So, the Indian-born and trained Muslim Doctor Mohammed Haneef has not only been charged with the offence of supporting terrorism, but he has also been summarily stripped of his Australian Visa and taken into Immigration Detention.

Update: It seems the news reports that Dr. Haneef was in immigration detention were incorrect. He’s still in jail in Queensland because he hasn’t posted bail yet. His lawyer thinks he might avoid detention by not posting bail (to trump the trump, as it were) so we’ll just have to see how this shakes out.

And all this over a SIM card that he left with his cousins in Britain when he came to work in Australia.

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In the news lately there’s been a lot of coverage of “fake” products coming from China. First it was fake mobile phone batteries that can explode, then melamine (used to make plastics and fertiliser) in the dog food, then it was ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) in toothpaste. Now we hear about Chinese companies even cheating each other by supplying fake coal fly ash for use in concrete.

For those who don’t know, fly ash is produced when you burn coal. There are different parts to the ash and slag produced, and the fly ash is the part of the ash that floats up the flue (chimney) with the exhaust gases. And, apparently, it’s cheaper to make fake fly ash than it is to collect the real stuff. No country in the World uses all the fly ash it produces. The mind boggles.

Shit, it sounds like these guys should be running Pan Pharmaceuticals.

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