the family research council, a powerful interest group, has outdone themselves this week. from tony perkins' weekly briefing: "I can't help but compare the partisan bickering and Democratic calls for withdrawal from Iraq that have followed the kidnapping and murder of U.S. soldiers Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker by Islamic terrorists in Iraq with the unified resolve of the Israeli government to secure the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit." If mr. perkins had any sense of the conflict he would recognize that often the IDF has not moved so precipitously in order to 'rescue' on its own. further, the IDF's operation is far far broader (publicly so) than simply rescuing cpl. shalit. no doubt we should all pray for his speedy return; but mr. perkins unfairly and illogically compares Israel's actions to America's debate on Iraq. Firstly, the conflicts are entirely different; Secondly, had the administration put an ounce of the energy into Israel-Palestine they put into Iraq, the war on terror would be much further along, and the safety of america and her allies would be much more stable. Finally, mr. perkins suggests that democrats have been a) the only ones to call for a timetable of withdrawal, and b) that the US should or could react similarly to the sheer volume of kidnappings and attacks. part two of his messsage: "The New York Stock Exchange is going along with a sad display by PFLAG. This homosexual support group has been invited to ring the closing bell tomorrow on the Exchange. PFLAG is touting the buying power of homosexuals and their supporters... Homosexuals are known for exaggerating their numbers. But what really stands out is their desire to have it both ways. They cannot cry discrimination and claim to be an oppressed minority and then tell Wall Street, "By the way, we're an economic powerhouse." Interestingly, mr. perkins does not mask his contempt for the GLBT community at all. his final point, that indetifying and challenging anti-homosexual discrimination has nothing to do with the purchasing power of the community. he even opens by characterizing the event as "sad." sad for whom? for his organization? because they were unable to encourage the entire world that oppression and discrimination is the way to treat those of other sexual orientations? part three of his bigoted tirade: in response to the passing of a national sex offender registry, "One in five young people have been sexually solicited online, subcommittee members learned." not only does mr. perkins provide no source for this extreme statement, he demonstrates the same kind of bigotted fear that his previous statements claim. ooo, the internet, big bad and dangerous. that's why we need big brother to protect us from all the scary information out there. no doubt that children deserve to be protected from sexual predators; but perhaps that is better achieved by convincing parents to stop using the computer as a babysitter and tuning out of the lives of their children, leaving them vulnerable to naive choices about the relationships they build online. a sex offender registry will do nothing to help encourage that, and will only ensure that sexual predators are more likely to reoffend since they will not be reintegrated into society, and their rehabilitation will be truncated.

Great article on the current US response to the Israeli Gaza Operation.  And, Israel Freezes Operation in North Gaza.

today's quickies one. who's in bed with pearson airport people? two. not this guy. three. official site four. good measure five. why is reading the rhetoric so 'important?' six. theirs, on the other hand, is worth it.

Oh lord. But the sun is out today!

CNN.com's 'analyst,' quoted at the bottom of this article is clearly indicating approval that he has no true authority to bestow. i'm making my links available via del.icio.us soon, i will make a picture gallery, a little burlesque show, if you will. and finally, this is sad.

the site went down last week; and this week - a new host and a new design. hope you enjoy it. send your hate mail my way. the floods in the district have been murderous. so many people have lost so much. as for me, i have lost very little. a jacket got destroyed by rain that was too sneaky for my umbrella. in the meantime, i look forward to sunny days. a return to canada is in the works, come july. however, canada day will be celebrated at the embassy and at the folklife festival.

there is no need to let the provinces run things throught the council of the federation. the council of the federation is the federal government. that's the whole point. so a national, non-federal, securities regular, as proposed by our enlightened finance minister, sounds more like federal involvement in a non-federal issue. as if the government feels that punishing chronically ill people will help the healthcare system. i love this idea. war mongering never stops... back to the rain go oilers!

this makes me sick. how can CNN actually consider this "commentary." although they notify the reader of Mr. McCurry's status as a founder of Hands off the Internet; they do not point to the role he has played as an advocate for the telcos. in this article, he writes: "Face it, the current Internet is creaky and will quickly get congested without improvements." this is just a lie. the fastest the internet has been measured at 7.99 Gbps. This would allow you to download a one gigabyte file is approximately one second. all this on the "creaky" internet. and that's just where we're at now. just as the internet infrastructure was built by the people for the people, ie. not for and by the telcos. anyway, enough said.

from the perspective of windy san francisco both the edmonton oilers win and rafael nadal's victory were warming. i also read that Rep. John Hostettler, of Indiana, is familiar with Toronto's geography. rep. hostettler is also facing bad republican polling and his seat is vulnerable. this has sparked cross border reporting on canada's immigration policies. and yet, we face a massive labour shortage that can only be resolved by increasing our immigration numbers and improving programs for adjustment and foreign certification. this is all in response to the 17 anti-terror arrests in toronto last week. and now, my mother's MP is calling for a revolution in parliament hill security procedures. meanwhile, liberals bicker about how much cash can be accepted in questionable donations. Volpe, following in the grand tradition of Paul Martin's blind trust, has now called for full discolure. hopefully, this ridiculous affair will expose power hungry, ambitious, and opportunist liberals as just that (read: brison, ignatieff, volpe) and the real political soul searching can occur. or will it take 8 years of stephen harper to do that? i hope not. is it better to stay out of the fire entirely, or try and fight it? and with what? some final bits and pieces... welcome mount trudeau. it's about time. i'd also like trudeau bottled mountain spring water. and only sick, ego obsessed people would ever consider the recent git'mo suicides an "act of assymetrical warfare." most of us call it tragic. close the base! anyway, i'm off to enjoy the balmy 15C/59F weather san fran is treating us to today! maybe it's a sausolito kind of day.

enjoy this diatribe! I am certain that the beastie boys are going to step up soon. here is an article written by friend, simon reader. all about india. just look at the way CBS covers this story. even the researches are blinded by anti-smoking idolatory. smoking is bad, yes. but when this pervasive mentality begins to infect the objectivity of the scientific method, it's profoundly problematic. consider that this study did not evaluate the source of cotinine reduction AT ALL, therefore, no conclusion can be made about why levels have decreased. similarly, said levels did not decrease across the board, and the researchers suggested metabolic rates may have been a contributing factor. all of this information is in the article by CBS, but the overall tone and conclusions of the researchers themselves suggests the underlying distaste for smokers and smoking is a stronger driving force behind the reccomendations than the data itself. let's see if polling numbers go up after this. see this video for further consipiratorial information. and finally, a couple of t-shirts i thought were funny. one and two. it's so the bougie. instead of those, however, get this one.