Free Republic

TORONTO (Reuters) - To coincide with the world premiere of the "Lord of the Rings" musical in Toronto in February, a city tenants' group will crown a "Lord of the Slums." The group also wants slumlords to line up for a chance to win the "Golden Cockroach" award, and is eyeing a "Slums Unlimited" safari for tourists. The campaign by the Parkdale Tenants Association, which represents residents of a down-at-the-heels west end neighborhood, is taking aim at the city of Toronto and the government of Ontario over what it says are sub-standard living conditions for low-income renters. "When the city...

With the American Civil Liberties Union as their targeted enemy, the Alliance Defense Fund members aim at putting Christmas back into American life. Hallelujah. Hark the Herald Conservatives Sing.

by J.B. Williams Tuesday, August 16, 2005 Americans spend a lot of time fighting for, talking, debating and writing about our rights. No matter from which side of the political aisle we hale, we love our rights and we love to talk about them. It’s a shame we are not as enthusiastic about the responsibilities that accompany those rights.

Karl Rove is no Colombo. Unlike the wrinkled coat-gumshoes of televised fame, Rove could never find the skeletons in the closet. During the last American presidential campaign, Rove went into spy mode.

There is no doubt that Cindy Sheehan has become the latest hero to the anti-Bush, left lib mainstream media. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed while serving in Iraq last year has been camped outside of Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas and is vowing to stay there (or follow him to Washington) until he meets with her again. Sheehan wants to ask Bush what noble cause her son died for.

It seems that some members of the former mainstream media are suffering from a serious bout of amnesia. Last week CNN ran a promo for its "Situation Room" program, hosted by Wolf Blitzer, their Washington correspondent. The promo posed the question: "What would Clinton do… about AIDS, Africa, terrorism…?" The short answer, of course, is not much.

No one made Casey Sheehan sign up. No one. Not even his mother could force him to defend freedom. Casey signed up for the armed forces because he wanted to sign up for the armed forces.

Should Cindy Sheehan accept Pres. Bush's response and go home? Damn straight.

In recent weeks, gun violence in Toronto has become so prevalent that even the lefties who think that all of society’s problems can be solved with group hugs, can’t avoid the issue. When a recent spate of gun violence happened, that included the shooting of a 4-year-old boy outside of his home, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty swung into action. The premier, who has been lately speaking about "American guns on Canadian streets" said that he would discuss the matter of guns with the new American ambassador, David Wilkins

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will deliver the keynote address at September’s 2005 China Internet Summit, organized by China’s leading e-commerce company, Alibaba.com. Clinton’s address in Hangzhou, China follows closely on the heels of a final report issued by the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) suggesting that the UN assume global governance of the Internet.

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer and former U.S. President, has a huge problem: his mouth. The things emanating from that orifice are bizarre in the extreme, considering that Carter was arguably the worst president in the history of the United States.

Socialist politicians have come up with a clever scheme that takes the focus off their incompetence and instead targets a nebulous "enemy" that everyone loves to hate: the rich. Tune in to any talk radio program in Ontario, the Maritimes or BC and without fail, callers will talk about making people "pay their fair share". While there is nothing wrong with the concept of paying one’s fair share, the definition of what constitutes a "fair share" seems to be fluid, as does the definition of who is rich.

A couple of columnists in the Sun chain of newspapers, Peter Worthington in Toronto, and Ezra Levant in Calgary, have taken pot-shots at Microsoft, the giant American software company. Apparently, Microsoft’s sin is that it won a large contract with the Chinese government to provide software that would control the language content used on individual blogging sites in China. Certain words are zapped, including "freedom, democracy, and human rights." Also on the bleeped list are specific political references, such as "Dalai Lama" and "Tiananmen Square", as well as a number of sexually graphic words and phrases.

In a CBC Radio commentary that aired the day after the horrific terrorist attacks in London, journalist Gwynne Dyer described British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s reaction by saying:

I had the chance to sit down today and browse through a "Legion Magazine". It was quite impressive, and as I looked through it, I felt a great deal of pride for our grandparents and great-grandparents. It is an amazing magazine, full of anecdotes and stories that you would probably enjoy.

Even after terrorist attacks in Bali, Madrid, and last weeks bombing of London’s transportation system, many Canadians still do not believe that terrorist attacks will ever happen in this country. Seemingly forgotten are the statements of terrorist Ahmed Ressam who was caught trying to enter the U.S. from Canada in December 1999 to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. Ressam had subsequently told authorities that his cell had considered blowing up Jewish neighbourhoods in his adopted city of Montreal.

Microsoft is seeing little green men. The software giant will be seeing ET-like captains of UFOs until at least mid-July. In what seems to be the almost feverish global hunt for life on other planets, Microsoft is looking for proof positive. It is inviting users of its MSN Web portal to `take a picture’ of a UFO or alien and publish it on their blogs–online scrapbooks–with an explanation how they came across it. (This is London, Evening Standard, June 23, 2005)

Chillingly coincidental, the same 9/11 "war games" conducted during the actual tragedy on the morning of September 11, 2001, echo London underground "bombing exercises" which took place at the same time as the real attack, according to Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com. What are the odds of both human tragedies having coincidental "drills" going on at the exact same time real life was taking so many human lives in two terrorist attacks?

In the true spirit of America’s Independence Day, the 4th of July saw battle joined as homeowners, concerned citizens and upholders of the American constitution from all sides of the political spectrum joined forces to defend the now threatened 5th amendment and to protect hard-earned property from municipal governments recently accorded sweeping new powers of eminent domain. ... Hathcock summed up the feelings of many Americans made painfully aware of eminent domain when he said "I just cannot imagine how we can give such a broad brush of power to local, municipal government." Meanwhile, conservative activists at the Free Republic...

A few hours before Parliament voted to legalize same sex marriage on June 28, Frank McKenna, Canada’s ambassador to the United States went on American University Radio, a National Public Radio station in Washington D.C. During his one hour appearance on the Diane Rehm Show, McKenna spoke on a variety of issues from the war in Iraq to trade to Mad Cow disease. When a listener sent an email to the show that mentioned same sex marriage, the Ambassador said the following: