As 2008 comes to an end I have a few thoughts. The very first is to thank people who come to this site for their patience with me and their continued support throughout the year. Without it I would not be where I am now. Thank you all for that. [...more]
PARIS — When French shoppers start cutting back on buying champagne, oysters and foie gras for New Year's, it's been a rough year. As Europe prepared to ring in 2009, many revelers said belt-tightening was their top New Year's resolution. The vow followed the most volatile financial year in decades, a time that saw stock markets melt around the world and hundreds of thousands of workers lose their jobs. [...more]
So there is indeed now a war. In Gaza. Actually, there are two wars going on: one involving rockets and warplanes, and the other involving the media, as Barry Rubin notes: [...more]
A dying 101-year-old war hero was sent home from hospital by taxi wearing only a nappy and a set of ill-fitting pyjamas. Brigadier John Platt, who won the Distinguished Service Order for his bravery in battle, was left ‘degraded and humiliated’ by his treatment by Salisbury District Hospital, his family say. [...more]
On this the last day of 2008, I would like to revisit two very controversial issues that have come up again and again during the last year: teacher merit pay and a teacher performance appraisal process that, at the moment, does NOT include student achievement. [...more]
There is much reason to believe that John Tory would make a capable premier of Ontario. But it is increasingly improbable that he will get the chance. Although a victim of circumstance as well as his own mistakes, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader has cause to consider this holiday season whether it is worth staying on. [...more]
A man who admitted killing six members of a British Columbia family more than 25 years ago is appealing a decision to deny him parole, according to reports. Michelle Botelho, a relative of the victims, said the family recently learned David Ennis was appealing the decision, the Red Deer Advocate reported. Last October, the National Parole Board denied Ennis both day and full parole — his first request for parole since he was jailed more than 25 years ago. [...more]
Resurgent economic jitters sent benchmark oil prices below $37 US a barrel Wednesday, as traders focused on the global economic slowdown. Conflicts such as the current fighting between Israel and Hamas usually propel prices upward because of fears that unrest could spread in the oil-rich Middle East. But after an upward blip early this week, oil has resumed its slide as traders again turn their attention to economic fundamentals. [...more]
It's little wonder parliamentary privilege used to be called "absolute privilege." Even today, MPs and senators look upon their rights as parliamentarians as being supreme, in some cases even above the laws that apply to the rest of us. Consider the ongoing lawsuit brought by Telezone, Inc., a Toronto communications firm, against the federal industry department in 1999. It is still unresolved almost a decade after it was filed, in part because of parliamentary privilege. [...more]
An extract from grape seeds can destroy cancer cells, US research suggests. In lab experiments, scientists found that the extract stimulated leukaemia cells to commit suicide. Within 24 hours, 76% of leukaemia cells exposed to the extract were killed off, while healthy cells were unharmed, Clinical Cancer Research reports. [...more]
Since he was federally charged with trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been wrongly caricatured as some kind of hapless jester prancing on the edge of madness. Jesters hold rattles with a likeness of their heads on the end of a stick, and they hop off into a corner, prattling to themselves. That's what jesters do. Jesters don't pick up the race card in a nationally televised news conference and slam it into the face of every Democrat in the U.S. Senate, a palm heel strike to the tip of the nose, leaving all of them watery-eyed, their lips stinging. [...more]
Cutting budgets for official languages would be a mistake that could take decades to correct, Canada's Commissioner for Official Languages is warning. Speaking in a year-end interview, Graham Fraser said he is worried that the Conservative government may be tempted to put official languages programs on the chopping block as it looks for ways to save money. [...more]
Blue Like You | Sour grapes -- What’s with the liberal media and so-called academic ‘experts’ trying to discredit the high profile Senate appointments of Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin? Are they truly concerned, simply jealous, or is there a deeper, hidden agenda? [...more]
Christian Science Monitor | Alan Dershowitz: Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy -- Cambridge, Mass. - Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming. I vividly recall a visit my wife and I took to the Israeli city of Sderot on March 20 of this year. Over the past four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people. [...more]
BBC | Record stock market falls in 2008 -- Global markets saw record falls in 2008 as the financial turmoil and economic slowdown ended the stock market boom. [...more]
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel's government has decided to continue its offensive in the Palestinian territory of Gaza despite a French proposal for a humanitarian truce, a spokesman said Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security Cabinet met Wednesday to discuss the progress of the bombing campaign, now in its fifth day. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had proposed a truce that would allow humanitarian aid into the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory, but Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Olmert and his top advisers agreed to continue the attacks. [...more]
National Post | Commando base’s future still up in the air -- The Defence Department won't start figuring out what to do with its Joint Task Force 2 commando base south of Ottawa for at least another year, says the head of the country's special forces. [...more]
Hu Jintao has made his first visit back to the earthquake zone since the disaster struck in May after it emerged that millions of people were still homeless. Only a handful of the five million people whose homes were destroyed by the strongest earthquake to hit China in half-a-century have managed to rebuild before the arrival of winter. Piles of bricks and bags of cement line the road to Beichuan, near the epicentre of the quake, as peasants desperately try to erect structures that will shield them from the elements. The temperature in this mountainous region has already dipped to zero and will fall to as much as minus 20 degrees centigrade in the coming months. [...more]
Thanks to a perfect storm of falling commodity prices, ravaged equity markets and higher royalties, Alberta's outlook for conventional oil and gas exploration has never been so bleak in what is usually the busiest time of the year, industry observers say. [...more]
After 17 years in the provincial legislature, including a long stint as the minister of energy, Richard Neufeld is due a gesture of appreciation from the public he served. It's also understandable that at 64, an age when most Canadians are contemplating retirement, he looks forward to slowing down from the sometimes grueling pace of a cabinet minister. So for his sake, it's nice to see that he was able to land one of the lucrative and not too taxing seats in the Senate that Prime Minister Stephen Harper handed out as early Christmas presents to 18 more-or-less deserving Canadians. [...more]
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The global recession is re-exposing fissures in U.S.-China relations that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spent more than two years smoothing over. Heightened tensions between China and the U.S. may worsen a contraction in world trade that already threatens to deepen and prolong the economic downturn. The friction comes as President- elect Barack Obama readies a two-year stimulus package worth as much as $850 billion that will require the U.S. to borrow more than ever from China, the largest buyer of Treasury securities. [...more]
Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The last “Made in Europe” paracetamol, the painkiller sold as Panadol and Tylenol, will roll off a conveyer belt in France tomorrow. Rhodia SA, the world’s second-largest paracetamol producer, will close the 43-employee factory in Roussillon, southern France, because of competition from China and India, leaving Europe reliant entirely on imports of the drug. For Lelia Foata, a 32-year-old mother of two who lives near Paris, that’s a worry. [...more]
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers face a wave of store closings, bankruptcies and takeovers starting next month as holiday sales are shaping up to be the worst in 40 years. Retailers may close 73,000 stores in the first half of 2009, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Talbots Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. are among chains shuttering underperforming locations. [...more]
Gov. Blagojevich today is expected to name former state Comptroller and Attorney General Roland Burris to Illinois' vacant U.S. Senate seat, a knowledgeable source said this morning. A news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. [...more]
Year-end columns by journalists tend to be irrelevant in the overall scheme of things, but they're a media tradition that's unlikely to change. A lot happened in 2008 to make it an unusual year. [...more]
The year that lies ahead threatens to be one of the most grim in all British history. Hundreds of thousands of us look certain to lose our jobs, most through absolutely no fault of our own. According to some estimates, that figure may even reach a million. For some of us, the prospect is grimmer still. We will not be able to keep up our mortgage payments, and so lose our homes, as well. This series of disasters, however, is likely to befall only those who have made the mistake of working in the private sector. [...more]
More than 400 people have been killed by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo in attacks since Christmas day, aid agency Caritas says. The head of Caritas in DR Congo told the BBC some 20,000 people had fled to the mountains from the rebels, who have denied carrying out the attacks. An eyewitness told the BBC that five people in Faradje had their lips cut off by Lord's Resistance Army fighters. They were told that it was a warning not to speak ill of the rebels. [...more]
The search for 28-year-old Danny Bjarnason, presumed to have died following two weekend avalanches in B.C., is expected to resume Tuesday. At a press conference Tuesday, the RCMP identified Bjarnason, along with seven other victims whose bodies were recovered Monday. The names of the seven men are: [...more]
Pajamas Media | Michael Ledeen: The Battle of Gaza and The Real War -- It was only a matter of time before Israel lashed out at Hamas in Gaza. Even the appeasers in Israel, of whom there are many, could not indefinitely accept thousands of rockets landing in civilian centers, especially after the battle against Hezbollah in 2006, which was widely viewed as a fiasco for the Israeli Army and for the leaders in Jerusalem who are facing an election in two months. Defense Minister Barak says it’s “all-out war,” which suggests ground operations. The usual rule in these cases is that Israel doesn’t have much time to accomplish its objectives; the “international community” rallies to the side of Israel’s enemies, and Israel’s leaders invariably convince themselves that if they play ball, they’ll be rewarded for it. But that never happens. So far the Brits and the Vatican have already demanded an end to operations against Hamas, and by the time I finish typing this there will be more. [...more]
