Well, well, what do we have here? Facts! You, say!

Only nitwits, liberals, leftwing losers and media flunkies are deaf, blind and dumb about Afghanistan. They alone account for the greatest source of 'ignoramee' on the planet. Combine their head-in-the-sand mentality to the facts presented by Kate @ smalldeadanimals and wonder at the difference, and then ask yourself why we even bother to read newspapers, listen to "local" talk radio or follow national TV news?

Facts:

At the national level the NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) development work has ensured that:

1. Millions of girls are back in school with 400,000 new female students starting school for the first time this year;
2. Over 100,000 women benefited from micro finance loans to set up their own business;
3. Over a quarter of parliamentarians are women;
4. Over 7 million girls and boys are in school or higher education;
5. 83% of the population now has access to medical facilities, compared to 9 percent in 2004;
6. 76% of children under the age of five have been immunized against childhood diseases;
7. More than 4000 medical facilities opened since 2004;
8. Over 600 midwives were trained and deployed in every province of Afghanistan;
9. GDP growth estimates of between12-14% for the current year;
10. Government revenues increased by around 25% from 2005/06 to 2006/07;
11. Income per capita of $355, compared to $180 three years ago;
12. Afghanistan is one of the fastest growing economies in South-East Asia;
13. Over 4000 km of roads have been completed;
14. Work has begun on 20,000 new homes for Afghans returning to Kabul;
15. Over 1 billion square metres (roughly 32 km X 32 km) of mine contaminated land cleared;
16. 10 universities are operating around the country, against one (barely functioning) under the Taliban; and
17. 17,000 communities benefited from development programmes such as wells, schools, hospitals and roads through the Government’s National Solidarity Program (NSP).
18. 10% of Afghans now own a mobile phone, compared to 2 lines per 1000 people in 2001;
19. 150 cities across Afghanistan now have access to mobile phone networks and internet provider services; and
20. 7 national TV stations (6 private); numerous radio networks, plus a diverse and increasingly robust and professional print media are up and running.

MORE, MORE, MORE F*A*C*T*S:

CANADIAN (CIDA) PROJECTS

There are some important Canadian projects underway too – not all of them in Kandahar. Examples, from long, long lists, include:

1. Canada is contributing $20+ Million to the National Solidarity Program – item 17, above, which is the Afghan Government’s primary program for community development. It aims to reduce poverty by empowering communities to take initiative, improving local governance and increasing social, human and economic capital. This is key to strengthening local governance and citizen participation, and to increasing the Government of Afghanistan’s legitimacy and capacity. Specifically, in Kandahar, these are just a few of the completed projects:

• over 55 km of irrigation canals dug or rehabilitated;
• More than 120 km of rural roads have been rehabilitated in Kandahar to allow market access for Afghan villagers;
• over 1,200 kW of diesel electrical generating capacity installed; and
• over 1,100 shallow wells dug.

2. Canada is contributing even more, $23+ Million, to the National Area Based Development Program. In Kandahar province, alone:

District Development Assemblies (the base for free political decision making) have been established in each of the 17 districts in Kandahar. In total, over 1,200 men and 250 women participated in the process of establishing these assemblies; and

These Assemblies can now ‘direct’ the PRT (and Canadian development aid) to projects like: the rehabilitation of 21 karezes, traditional Afghan irrigation tunnels; the establishment of 136 village drinking water wells; and the procurement, installation and maintenance training of solar powered household lighting systems.

3. Canada is contributing $6+ Million to a project which has trained 75 prosecutors in juvenile justice, financial and gender crimes; 68 law graduates as public defenders; and 90 judges (16 women) in civil, commercial, criminal law/procedure, plus 75 judges have been trained in specialized civil, commercial, criminal law/procedures and 20 judges have been trained in Trainer-Of-Trainer courses, and a year-long training course for 50 public defenders is underway.

4. $14+ Million goes towards a project which aims to establish up to 4,000 community-based schools, as well as after-school learning programs and to provide training for 9,000 schoolteachers, at least 4,000 of whom will be women. About 120,000 schoolchildren in 11 provinces (including Kandahar Province) will benefit from this project (85 percent of them girls).

The Ruxted Group wonders if Canadians understand that:

A. The National Solidarity Program (NSP) is the largest community development program in the history of Afghanistan.

B. The NSP is based on the Afghan traditions of:

• “Ashar” – community members working together on a volunteer basis to improve community infrastructure;
• “Jirga” – councils comprised of respected members of the community; and
• Islamic values of unity, equity and justice.

C. Less than one percent of the initiatives launched through the National Solidarity Program have been destroyed or targeted by insurgents.

After reading this list, you know that Jack Layton and ALL of his caucus live in wacko land. Stephane Dion and des Liberaux? Des fou!

Have a nice day!

God bless Canada's mission in Afghanistan!

A World Of Fools

There are so many, many things I could write about while I am in Quebec. I could write about how the NDP is the political party of choice for terrorists and idiots, or that the Liberal Party is the party of choice for crooks and the power hungry, but the biggest story of the year has to be a judge's decision to limit the ability of border guards to check the cars of suspicious acting persons.

Read it and wonder - Globe and Mail:

VANCOUVER — Canadian border guards are stunned by a landmark Provincial Court ruling that they must obtain a warrant before thoroughly searching a suspicious vehicle.

"This is huge. I can't believe it. If this stands, we might just as well go out of business," Ron Moran, national president of the 10,000-member Custom Excise Union and a customs official for 27 years, said yesterday.

"Until this judgment, it would never even have crossed our minds to obtain a search warrant. It's just not part of what we're taught."

Mr. Moran was commenting on a little-noticed decision last week that acquitted a B.C. man of importing 50 kilograms of cocaine into Canada because the contraband was discovered by customs officials without a search warrant.

The ruling by Provincial Court Judge Ellen Gordon, believed to be the first of its kind, could have profound implications for border checks across the country.

"All of our current procedures are based on previous court rulings. This sets new ground," said Chris Williams, spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency, which is responsible for policing the border.

"The smuggling of cocaine is an ongoing concern. This judgment is something we are obviously concerned about."

Mr. Williams said the government has already filed an appeal, and, in the meantime, customs officials will not change the way they operate at the border.

.......

Judge Ellen Gordon is an idiot of the higest caliber. Her decision must have been made while she was locked in a drug induced embrace because there is NO wisdom in her decision. None!

It is time that judge's like her are FIRED before they destroy Canada further.

Morons, it seems, are not limited to the uneducated class.

Full Contact With Reality My Ass

The world of psychiatry is as wacky as some of their theorists. Take the latest assessment of Greg Depres - the mentally ill New Brunswick man who chopped off the head of his neighbour. Yep, he ain't crazy no more - he is on meds.

CTV:

MONCTON, N.B. -- A psychiatrist says a New Brunswick man charged with a grisly double murder is fit to stand trial.

Dr. Louis Theriault says Gregory Allen Despres, 24, has been taking his medication and is "in full contact with reality."

Despres is accused of killing his elderly neighbours, Fred Fulton and Verna Decarie in their Minto home in 2005.

A judge ruled in late April that Despres, who went on a 10 minute disjointed rant while in the courtroom, was not fit to stand trial.

Theriault told today's hearing of the province's mental health review board that Despres has not suffered delusions for three months.

The hearing is scheduled to last three days.

What a cruel bunch of fools. Greg Depres ain't fit to stand trial. He was mental when he went mental and he is still mental despite the drug induced calm that has lasted these three months. We have protection for the mentally ill for a reason. Why are some people obsessed with making this young man stand trial?

I am beginning to think that all of the pot smokers and their advocates have a vested interest in making Greg Depres stand trial. For what reasons? Gee, I wonder why?

The only persons in full contact with reality are the people who know that Depres is mentally ill and don't want him humiliated further. God help the rest of them.......

Creating Non News

I am in Quebec for the summer. My apologies to the millions of readers who may have missed my latest rants about evil, liberals and Islam.

Although I have plenty of time to post, I haven't felt the urge to split a pea or two. Mostly, I feel like ignoring newspapers, media cult personalities and their friends. But, patience is not one of my virtues - and some stories require a comment.

The Globe and Mail used to be one of the best newspapers in Canada. These days I think LaPresse is the best newspaper in Canaada. Read the comments of people who read the damn Globe and you get a real picture of the quality of the readers. They are scary - so scary I think CSIS should have a media desk just to follow the wackos.

So, when I read the latest Globe «make it up» news story about the appointment of William Elliott as the new non-Mountie Commissioner I had to say something. But first, here is the Globe in all its artificial glory:

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day pleaded with RCMP members in a personal e-mail to support their new commissioner, saying that William Elliott may not know what it feels like to have “a hardened criminal stare him in the face” but he does know how to assess threats to national security.

In the note sent to all Mounties over the weekend, Mr. Day said he was “unashamedly” asking them to work “shoulder to shoulder” with Mr. Elliott, who was plucked from the senior ranks of the public service as the first outsider to head the police force. He begins his new job next Monday.

But the parents of a young Mountie gunned down at Mayerthorpe, Alta., called Monday on Mr. Day and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to rethink the “tradition-breaking decision.”

“As parents of a Mountie, we know that Brock would be truly dismayed and shocked that it is okay to take a bullet for Canada, die for your country as a Mountie, but a Mountie isn't good enough to be a commissioner,” said Colleen Myrol, whose son was one of four Mounties killed on March 3, 2005.

“It's so very important for a Mountie [who] really is a Mountie to be the head commissioner, [someone] who knows how it feels for those Mounties out in the cars and being undercover,” she said at a news conference, welcoming new murder charges in the case as proof that the RCMP deserve the respect and confidence of Canadians.

<.....>

Is it just me, but modern media types seem to have the parents and spouses of death people on hold for future news story? The comment and orientation of the story stinks. There were several high ranking mounties interviewed for the job but they could not pass the muster. They were not good enough to lead a transition from the old to the new force. Too many of the candidates were tainted by their status within the RCMP.

Since the RCMP is the new beating horse of the media establishment (and the pot smokers of Canada), a transition man was required. Day smoked the boring media types by «doing the right thing» and hired the outsider. Good on him, but the media needed to make up a story that included a widow or a dead something or other.

Day did the right thing and Harper did the right thing by appointing Day to the important post of public security. It kills the freaks in the media to see Day do the right things.

While in Quebec, I will toast the Prime Minister and Minister Day or I might just drink and forget about the news.

Dear Mrs Peace

I am writing to respond to your comments in the Fredericton Daily Gleaner.

On a day when Canadians should be mourning the loss of six brave men they are instead having to read and hear an emotional appeal for them to run away.

In the article that contained your opinions, the opening paragraph gives the impression that you were a widow of a fallen soldier. "The deaths of more Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan has led to a call from the spouse of a deceased Fredericton soldier to bring the troops home." It is in the second paragraph that we learn that your husband died from non combat injuries. "Mary Ann Peace, whose husband Michael Peace died in October 2000 of a brain tumour after years of peacekeeping service in the Balkans, believes the time is right for the soldiers to return to Canada." My father was a veteran of the Korean War (conflict) and he died three years ago. I don't believe that our troops should be returned home because some have been killed.

It is terrible when soldiers lose their lives, but it is an insult to their sacrifice to hear and read that their sacrifice was in vain or that their sacrifice was not appreciated. "I think Canadian troops and families have had enough; it is time to pull the troops out of Afghanistan," Peace said.

"There is so much going on with the families now and, to hear about a loss or losses, just brings back (memories of) the day the family was delivered the news of their loved one."

War and international conflicts are a terrible thing. It's sad, heart wrenching and difficult - but it is necessary.

"Soldiers have been peacekeepers (in the past) and that role should be brought back. As peacekeepers, there were deaths and injury but not like Afghanistan." Anyone with any familiarity with modern conflict knows that the enemy does not dress and act like organized soldiers of yesteryear. If the death toll of previous wars are compared with the current mission in Afghanistan, the number of deaths are small. But, the greatest insult to the modern Canadian soldiers is the myth of peacekeeping. Our current NATO and UN sanctioned mission is NOT a peacekeeping exercise, nor is there a need for peacekeeping in a land where non-uniformed insurgents are trying to destroy any progress towards democracy and respecting human rights. There are no calls for peacekeepers anywhere in the world - what is required is tough effort.

Other statements in the article are quite galling. You told the interviewer, "I am saddened by the loss of six soldiers," Peace said. "Again, my heart goes out to the families and friends. Support our troops and bring them home." To suggest that you support our troops and then insult them with the liberal / left-wing mantra, "bring them home" is a lie. People that support our troops are informed and know that the men and women in uniform are doing noble work. Comments that suggest that we are not strong enough as a nation to endure loss emboldens those vicious men who kill teachers who educate women and children.

Finally, sometimes when I read certain comments from people, I get a clear picture that they read and follow a certain political ideology and that they are ignorant of modern history. "A war is a conflict between two nations and peacekeeping comes at the end of a war for rebuilding, not during a war," said Peace, whose husband was a member of 2RCR. I'm sorry Mrs Peace but that is not true. The war in Afghanistan is between those that support human rights and those that wish to impose an evil authoritarian regime upon the people. Our soldiers are fighting a just cause.

Finally, you are quoted, "The government wants both -- fight a war and perform peacekeeping duties. Someone needs to rethink the Afghanistan mission. This war has been going on for years and it will be years before it ends." The Liberal Party of Canada and the NDP say that too. They are wrong and you are wrong. The Liberals sent our troops to the most dangerous part of Afghanistan while knowing the truth about the mission and have since turned their back on our men and women in uniform. Stabbing good people in the back is a tactic of the Taliban and some well-meaning but ignorant Canadians.

I support our troops - you don't.

Sincerely,

Anselm Finnan

PS. How is it possible that a news reporter could have found Mrs Peace so soon after the soldiers' deaths? And how convenient too!

Dr. Death a la Islam

There will come a day ( and soon) when mainstream Canadians will demand protection from followers of Islam. When that day arrives, all aspects of Canadian democracy will be on the table. Sadly, only the left and some liberals will demand that we continue to live under a cloud of Islamic intimidation.

The fact that educated Muslims are as much of a threat to our liberty as their downtrodden stereotyped elements speaks volumes about Islam and Mohammad. But, then again, weren't the men who used airliners as weapons educated Muslims? Let's dispense of any notions that we are culpable for Islamic terror. We are not. We live in progressive societies because OUR religious doctrine expects us to do good. Obviously, it is time to change the cliches and focus on the facts - Islam is a dangerous cult.

If Muslims wish to live in a world of peace, forget demanding we all convert to Islam. Let's demand that religious freedom become a reality in Muslims states. That one step would go a long way towards liberating the world from terrorism.

In the meantime, more words of wisdom from Lorrie Goldstein @ Toronto Sun:

So much for the Hippocratic oath.

The fact that police say several doctors were involved in an alleged terrorist ring that set off a car bomb at Scotland's Glasgow Airport and tried but failed to do so a few days earlier in London should tell us something.

Not simply that, if the allegations are true, these "doctors" broke their profession's most important promise -- to "do no harm."

But also that we must abandon the naive idea that all terrorists are driven by poverty and despair to lash out at those they see as oppressors of the Islamic world.

Going back to 9/11, it has become obvious that many terrorists are not "driven" to murderous rage because they or their fellow Muslims have been marginalized or ostracized by society.

Rather, many make a conscious decision to attack societies that have in fact welcomed them.

Indeed, not all terrorists grow up in poverty and despair in the Gaza strip or West Bank.

Many live extremely comfortable lives before choosing to become terrorists.

Understanding this is important because it means that fighting terrorism and addressing its so-called "root causes" are in fact two distinct issues.

We cannot fight terrorism effectively if we do it half-heartedly, or apologetically, or ridden with guilt because we naively accept Islamist propaganda that none of this would be happening if the Palestinians had their own state, or if the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq.

Osama bin Laden didn't need the Iraq war to carry out 9/11, which was the culmination of years of increasingly brazen terrorist attacks against U.S. targets.

Those who claim we can fight terrorism by not offending radical Islamists are living in a dream world.

Radical Islamists are "offended" to the point of murdering civilians by everything from cartoons to equal rights for women. They cannot be "reasoned" with.

The creation of a Palestinian state and alleviating the poverty and despair that afflicts so much of the Islamic world are worthy goals in and of themselves that the West should pursue.

But believing such initiatives will stop terrorism dead in its tracks, is just dead wrong.

Questions anyone?

"It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."

Gee, who said that?

Why it was ex PM Tony Blair in an interview with a British journalist.

The Guardian:

Tony Blair has launched a powerful attack on 'absurd' British Islamists who have nurtured a false 'sense of grievance' that they are being oppressed by Britain and the United States.

In his most outspoken remarks on Islamists, the former Prime Minister warns that Britain is in danger of losing the battle against terrorists unless mainstream society confronts the threat.

Blair's remarks, in which he also attacks some civil liberty campaigners as 'loopy loo', were made in a Channel 4 documentary recorded last Tuesday on the eve of his departure from Downing Street.

'The idea that as a Muslim in this country that you don't have the freedom to express your religion or your views, I mean you've got far more freedom in this country than you do in most Muslim countries,' Blair told Observer columnist Will Hutton, who presents the documentary.

'The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."'

Blair held out the example of the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan - criticised by Islamists as an example of the heavy-handed imperial West oppressing Muslims - to highlight unfounded claims of grievance. He asked how it is possible to claim that Afghanistan's Muslims are being oppressed when the Taliban 'used to execute teachers for teaching girls in schools'.

Blair added: 'How are [we] oppressing them? You're oppressing them when you support the people who are trying to blow them up.'

Blair, who normally chooses his language carefully when he talks about Islamists, also takes a swipe at critics who accused him of undermining civil liberties. 'When I'm trying to change the law in order to make it easier to deport people who engage in terrorism - the idea that that's an assault on hundreds of years of British civil liberties is completely absurd. Some of what is written on this is loopy-loo in its extremism.' [emphasis added]

h/t: Jihadwatch

Read the typical comments at the Globe and Mail on the latest London bombings in Canada's national newspaper, and weep at the ignorance [propaganda] on display. Here are some choice examples.

GlobeandMail:

Average Dummy from NWT, Canada writes: Absolutely true. Bush has upset the whole world with his idiotic war in IRAQ. More and more people are MAD at the USA (and its allies and that includes Canada)- many of us have seen this the day when the SHOCK and AWE wave of destruction of IRAQ has begun. The ones in power, like Bush, Pentagon and the ones who make living out of the WARS did not care or were too STUPID to care.... We have known since the beginning, that if you LIE to the world and LIE to your own people you are bound to loose the INTEGRITY and will create HATE in many countries around the world...... Now the ones who were hurt and/or are unemployed, who's feelings were upset by the stupidity of the show of FORCE against other nations, well those are the ones who will become the new wave of terrorists, who want revenge against the WEST! Unfortunately, they do not realize, that many of us were and are against the Bush Administration and against any violence and this will result in more innocent being hurt and/or killed......TAHNK you mister Bush for creating MORE UNSAFE world! Too bad you will never HANG similar to Saddam!

and this gem:

Ferdous Islam from Toronto, Canada writes:
[...]
Dear Hot-head readers, please focus your eyes to what's happening in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Lebanon today, then relate those to the irrational exuberance of a few youth in UK. Hundreds of innocent men, women and children are getting banished in "colateral" bombs, machine guns and landmines everyday in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Lebanon. Where are these "human" readers in their perspective on these carnages? Understand that some of these angered youths may have been affacted directly or indirectly, seen the events on TV, Internet and led them to self destruction. Right or wrong depends on whose perspective you take. But don't kill yourself in hatred of others as those youths in UK. There will be no difference between you and they.

It is comments like those listed above that make me wonder about the mentality of some newspaper readers in Canada. Maybe the "loopy-loo" that Blair spoke about is worldwide in the media business and it's readers?