Free Republic

You burn one White House and some people completely lose their sense of humour. We should be proud that we can look back and laugh. When the British embassy in Washington tweeted a photo of a cake with the White House plus British and American flags and joked “Only sparklers this time!” the Internet burst into flames. As usual. But the embassy, upper lip quivering, then bleated “We meant to mark an event in history and celebrate our strong friendship today.” Personally I can’t think of a better way of doing so than making light of what an earlier embassy...

... It has been amazing to watch Chow slip to third place. Rob Ford, the great helmsman of punk politics, has now crashed out in front of the woman who (the Toronto Star long assured us) was supposed to waltz away with the race, fresh from her stint as MP in the House of Commons. Ms. Chow has plummeted markedly — from her start at 38% to a despairing 23%.... Does the result flow from Mr. Ford’s largely unacknowledged campaigning genius? Is there another person in Toronto, or all of Canada, who could carry the burdens he does, almost all...

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had to strengthen its position, economically and militarily, in the resource rich Arctic region, where other countries are vying for influence.

GATINEAU — A former physical education teacher from Quebec has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for carrying on a two-year sexual relationship with a high school student. Despite her pleas in Gatineau court Friday to serve her sentence in the community, Tania Pontbriand received an 18-month sentence for two counts of sexual exploitation and a 20-month sentence for one count of sexual assault. She will serve the sentences concurrently. She was also sentenced to two years’ probation following her jail term. Pontbriand was convicted of the three offences in January for having a sexual relationship with her student...

In his rush to flame-broil Burger King as an unpatriotic fast-food joint looking to skip out on paying its taxes to Uncle Sam, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews sought to enlist the famously pro-free market, pro-capitalism Wall Street Journal. The only problem is his claim is 100 percent Grade A baloney. "The Wall Street Journal lead editorial today came out against it.... The lead editorial today, surprisingly, attacked this tax scheme," Matthews insisted to guest David Corn of the leftist Mother Jones magazine. In point of fact, the Journal editorial board slammed not corporate "inversion" schemes but the current U.S. tax code, which...

Russia posted this map in response to Canada's Twitter That's the message the Canadian Nato delegation tweeted, in map form, to Russian soldiers "who keep getting lost and 'accidentally' entering Ukraine". "Geography can be tough," it notes snarkily. On Tuesday Ukraine released video of Russian paratroopers it says it captured within its eastern border. In response, Russian military sources said the men had crossed an unmarked portion of the border "by accident". Canadian officials, it seems, aren't buying the story. Since the tweet went live, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has alleged that Russian troops have been "deployed" in eastern Ukraine...

The apparent presence of Russian troops in Eastern Ukraine amounts to an “active invasion,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said, calling Russia’s advance an “absolutely reckless” and “shamelessly dishonest” provocation leading up to a NATO summit next week. .... “This is absolutely unacceptable, irresponsible and absolutely reckless. It is also deeply and shamelessly dishonest. While Russian President Putin talked about ceasefires with [Ukraine] President [Petro] Poroshenko in Minsk, his military was busy fighting on Ukrainian soil,” Mr. Baird told reporters Thursday in a conference call from Croatia. “Russia’s credibility was very limited after the dishonesty and deception over Crimea....

Oh, he smiles nice for his royal retinue. But remember that the Burger King — like any absolute monarch — cares not a whit for the common people, especially if they are Canadian. The Burger King’s expansionist desires have been clear for many years. But with the brazen annexation of an iconic Canadian restaurant chain this week, the time for appeasement is over. In interviews with the Financial Post, the Burger King’s minions assured Tim Hortons customers that their coffee-and-crullers experience would remain untouched. Words in the wind. We recall hearing similar soothing noises from the last quick-service imperialist to...

Don’t call it comeback yet, but Mayor Rob Ford is on the rise in a new poll on the Toronto mayoral race, closely trailing John Tory as once frontrunner Olivia Chow continues to bleed support. While most observers have pontificated on the campaign as a two-horse race between Chow and Tory, with Ford on the outside with a solid but underwhelming minority, the mayor’s polling gains since his return from rehab is sure to turn heads. In the latest Forum Poll, an automated phone survey conducted Monday and Tuesday of 1,945 Torontonians, Tory leads with 34% support, followed by Ford...

CALGARY — The Boycott Divest Sanction movement that is gaining popularity across Canadian universities has done little to deter exchanges and co-operation between academics here and in Israel, according to the Israeli ambassador to Canada. As protests against Israel have grown in the wake of ongoing conflict in Gaza, Rafael Barak, the Israeli ambassador to Canada, said he is pleased by the way local authorities have handled the sometimes violent escalation of hostilities between protest groups. Meanwhile, BDS movements — passed by several student groups in recent years, including at three universities in Toronto — seem to be having little...

MISSISSAUGA — For the 2nd time in just more than a month, a Sunwing flight was forced to turn around and return to Pearson International Airport over a major disturbance on the plane. The Sunwing flight was en route to Cuba when the pilot decided to divert the plane back to Pearson when two female passengers were being disruptive, according to Peel Regional Police. The pilot of the 737 aircraft reported while in mid-flight that the aircraft was "under threat." Sunwing officials say the women were drinking and lit a cigarette onboard the flight before getting into a fight and...

With Ukraine’s government airing videos of unwelcome Russian soldiers in its territory, Canada’s delegation to NATO offered Moscow an unsolicited lesson in geography Wednesday. “Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering Ukraine,” the delegation’s Twitter account said, with a picture of a map marked “Russia” in red and “Not Russia” in blue.

Warren Buffett may be most famous for the billions of dollars he has made from investing, but he is also well known as a cheerleader for the United States. The Oracle of Omaha routinely exhorts investors to put their money in America, “the mother lode of opportunity,” as he wrote in his annual letter this year. So Buffett’s participation in fast-food chain Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s purchase of coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc.—complete with relocation of Burger King’s domicile to Canada—might at first blush raise questions about his patriotism. Investors and tax experts say Miami-based Burger King’s move...

BAFFIN ISLAND — As Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads back to the office, concluding his ninth Arctic summer tour, his strategists and senior staff will be congratulating themselves on a job well done. To be fair, they have some reasons to feel that way. As such junkets go, this one went off more or less without a hitch. There were no pratfalls; no trips, slips, incidents or shoves. Apart from a single sign that nearly toppled onto the prime minister on the first morning, the visuals beamed back to newsrooms in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver have been positive for...

While members of Congress spent the last decade lobbing cow pies at each other, their counterparts in Canada were accomplishing what Washington should have been doing: streamlining the nation’s tax structure to attract more companies. It worked. Burger King (BKW), based in Miami, hopes to acquire the Tim Horton’s (THI) chain, based in Oakville, Ontario, and relocate the headquarters of the combined company to Canada. The so-called tax inversion that would be part of this deal would give the new firm a sizable tax break, on account of the lower rates in Canada. With many nations lowering their corporate tax...

Free the Children employee Michael Lorsch begins a striptease at a Boylesque event. A manager at the popular Canadian charity Free the Children who helped run the organization’s We Day events, spoke frequently at schools, and led youth trips overseas has resigned after LifeSiteNews reported he was moonlighting as a gay stripper. Michael Lorsch, former manager of Free the Children's leadership programs in Toronto, resigned Friday after LifeSiteNews ran two stories on August 14 and August 18 about his role as a performer in the homosexual-themed troupe Boylesque, which aims to put “male nudity and sexuality back center-stage where...

President Obama would have proudly proclaimed Warren Buffett a true patriot in his bailing out of the banking system with expensive loans and his 'realization' that those earning more than $1 million should be tax-tax-taxed. However, the "Buffett Rule" appears to have one caveat... if you are making over a $1 billion, you're good to go with tax-avoidance strategies. In one of his career's most hypocritical moves Warren "tax-me-more" Buffett has decided that putting his money where his mouth is no longer makes sense.. and is funding $3billion of Burger King's "tax-inversion" takeover of Canada-based Tim Hortons. Somewhere on...

Speaking as someone who has eaten there, Burger King is one of the saddest places on earth. Abandon digestion and pimple-free skin, all ye who enter there. To me, Burger King isn't just a lousy place to eat but a sort of existential black site that drains the life out of you (well, me) on every level: All the products are just lousier versions than what's offered at better fast-food joints. The ads, even those old fake-hip ones with the weird Burger King, are awful to the nth degree (anyone else remember the "Where's Herb?" campaign?). Yet I find the...

Speaking to CNBC in May on the subject of tax inversion deals, Warren Buffett said, “it does get a little annoying when we see other people paying far lower tax rates while engaging in the same sorts of businesses that we engage in.” Now Buffett appears to have decided to get in on the game: The Oracle of Omaha is extending financing to Burger King for its planned takeover of Canadian coffee-and-donuts chain Tim Hortons , the Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening, citing sources familiar with the deal. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will provide roughly 25% of the financing, the...

Some Burger King customers are finding it hard to swallow that the home of the Whopper could move to Canada. Investors seemed to welcome the announcement by Burger King late Sunday that it was in talks to buy Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons and create the world’s third-largest fast-food restaurant company. The news pushed shares of both companies up more than 20 percent. But customers were already voicing their discontent with the 60-year-old hamburger chain because of its plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from Miami to Canada in a deal that could lower its taxes. …