There Are Days When Christie Is A Tonic...

Afghan protests, cruise ships, jumpsuits and other pressing matters
Christie Blatchford: Is anyone else growing just a tad weary of Afghanistan and Afghans and all those who continue to carry on about the accidental burning of Korans?
...and then we have the liberals and ndp:
Robocalls scandal is bad, but politicians are being a little hypothetical
Chris Selley: Trying to trick someone into not voting is indeed more offensive than trying to trick him into voting for the other guy. The law, however, seems not to make any distinction
Scott Stinson: Robocalls scandal sinks Question Period debate to new lows
...you really have to ask yourself if there is even a smigden of truth do those who were swayed really deserve "the right" to vote? I know we allow criminals in prison to vote and I have to wonder whether this same right is extended to those in mental instituations? The success of the ndp in quebec might say yes!

A Sad Testament To Black Community Surrender To Gangsta Mentality...

The scene where Kenneth Mark was murdered on Dec. 29, 2009, which shows clothes on the street that were cut off by paramedics.

Kenneth Mark’s sad, lonely death
Christie Blatchford Feb 6, 2012 – 8:01 PM ET

He was carrying his dinner; the paper bag from the pizza and wings joint is off to one side on the road.

He was completely vulnerable when the attack came; the black earphones, one dislodged when he fell is testament to that.

He died at the hands of a coward; who else fires a bullet to the back of a man’s head?

Read More »

This Tradegy Should Come As No Surprise...

Toronto man killed for taking stand against gun violence, trial told
Christie Blatchford: Kenneth Mark was exactly the kind of young man police all too rarely encounter, but a prosecutor says he was murdered for breaking an urban code of silence

...thanks to the leftwing social in-activist groups and the leftwing media fostering complacency which and putting the police under a microscope basically telling the public that you will get no support or protection for doing your civic duty.

Police routinely suppress racial data in Canada, study says
Many Canadian police agencies "actively suppress" racial data when delivering annual crime reports to Ottawa — a disturbing and growing trend, according to a new study

Bottom Line...They Are Winning...

OPP Comforting Native Lawbreakers

Court decision points at OPP’s failure in Caledonia
Christie Blatchford: There are so many aspects to the tragi-comedy which got its start in the Ontario town of Caledonia that only the obsessed can keep up with it all

Injustice at Caledonia
Brian Lilley

Reality Check...

Print copies of Christie's article and place on the fridge, beside every tv in the house, all the computers and the outside doors and get a life.

‘Stay warm’ and other silly advice for the urban helpless

Christie Blatchford: I am buggered if I’m going to look for instruction on how to fold a sweater or name a child, and I don’t need a bureaucrat to tell me it’s cold outside

Volunteers Helping The Victims In Caledonia...

...are more likely to be arrested than praised or thanked!

Volunteer group flying to Attawapiskat with relief supplies

The bad logic behind light sentence in Caledonia
Christie Blatchford: When a young native man, Richard Smoke, was sentenced to less than two years for a near-fatal beating, it had the flavour of the person who kills his parents then seeks the mercy of the court as an orphan

National Post editorial board: More injustice from Caledonia

Native attacker given reduced sentence for ‘vicious’ Caledonia assault

Take The Time To Read...

...it gives an insight into many of our problems!

Toronto, City of Sissies
Christie Blatchford
It was in Toronto recently, while temporarily resuming my semi-charmed kind of life there and briefly ditching the other semi-charmed half in Kingston, that I realized how much in need the modern male of the species is of some toughening up.
The bull terrier and I were on a long forced march on the toney part of Yonge Street, in Rosedale.
There were a couple of boys, maybe 10 years old, maybe 12, walking ahead of me. Coming towards them was another small knot of boys about the same age.
The two groups met, and immediately began hugging each another, one at a time. The trustees and ding-dongs at the Toronto District School Board would have been ecstatic; I was mortified and appalled.
This was about the time that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was all over the airwaves, with his anti-bullying crackdown, and poor old Doug Ford, a Toronto councillor whose brother Rob just happens to be the city mayor, was caught out (by the Toronto Star, of course, the newspaper in such a permanent state of nervous Nellie-dom about the Fords, forever crying in front-page headlines “The world is ending! Again!”, that it renders the boy who cried wolf a reticent little beggar by comparison) shilling for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, which of course was made legal in the province only this year by, wait for it, the government of Premier McGuinty.
Mr. Ford’s sin, through an assistant, had been to ask the TSDB to consider circulating a little brochure about WFC community involvement. “A terrible idea,” one trustee immediately said, noting that “schools are all about peacemaking now.”
That’s quite true: In Toronto, actual education routinely takes a back seat to anti-bullying messages, gay-positive education, recognition assemblies and social justice.
In any case, it already has been a bad month for Doug Ford.
Just days later, while attending a meeting about possible cuts to school nutritional programs, he offered to kick in $1,000 to help a particular program. So shocked were his fellows and Toronto taxpayers at the sight of a local politician offering to reach into his own pocket to pay for anything, they rose up as one to protest that this too must be dead-wrong.
(It reminded me of the time, years ago, when his brother was just a councillor and also got in trouble for not spending enough on his expenses. The nerve of those Ford bastards, not sucking the municipal tit for every last drop! That’s just wrong! But I digress.)
‘I have no particular fondness for gratuitous roughness in games, no time for bullies at all, and as a downtowner, I live surrounded by gay men, who, like most women, I adore as a group’
I think that part of the reason it’s a bad time to be Doug or Rob Ford or anyone like them is that they are too big, too pink, too football-y, and therefore too potentially violent and too-old school manly for a lot of city folk.
Toronto likes its men delicate, slender and arch, not sportif unless le sport in question is maybe badminton, and if those little boys I saw on Yonge Street are any indication, Toronto is even now about to achieve perfection in this coming generation.
Do not mistake this as a plea for head-banging in sport, a defence of bullies, or a veiled anti-gay message. I have no particular fondness for gratuitous roughness in games, no time for bullies at all, and as a downtowner, I live surrounded by gay men, who, like most women, I adore as a group.
But holy smokes, I am wearying of the male as delicate creature. I am wearying of men who are so frequently in touch with their feminine side they, not to mention me, have lost sight of the masculine one. I’m just plain sick of hugs, giving and getting, from just about anyone, but particularly man-to-man hugs.
And the novelty of being the toughest guy in the room – and by this I mean me – is getting really old.
In aid of all that, let me offer a few reminders of the way it was once upon a time and really always should be.
I remain convinced that the best way to stop a bully is not to go mewling to the teacher, who will only call the victim’s mummy, or to your own mummy, who will only call the teacher. The best way is to take the bully out for a short pounding after school – and may I make it plain, please, that I don’t mean the victims should do this, but rather others. The onus for stopping bullies lies not with the people being bullied, but with those who see it happen.
This has been true for centuries, and it is still true, and it works equally well in the locker room, the office, a bar, and on the factory floor or street.
It is possible to be a gentle and kind man without speaking in a soft, sibilant voice that makes all sentences sound to my ear as though they were composed entirely of Ss.
Glasses should be worn only by people who can’t see, not as props.
Gay, as I’ve mentioned, is entirely fine. Fey is a pain in the arse.
I know men have feelings too. I just don’t need to know much more than that. On any list of The 25 Things Every Man And Boy Should Know How To Do, hugging is not one of them. Killing bugs is. Whacking bullies is. Kissing is. Farting on cue is. Making the sound of a train in a tunnel is. Shooting a puck is. Hugging is not.
Feel free to give this to your male children. You’re entirely welcome.
National Postcblatchford@postmedia.com

Another Feather In McGoonty's Hat...

As the Caledonian occupation comes to a close in court, its issues linger
Years after the height of the fiery native occupation in Caledonia, tensions over the still-occupied site are set to flare again as non-native activists promised to march onto the site to raise a Canadian flag

Culture of racism behind beating of non-native builder by Caledonia activist: lawyer

Caledonia assault sentencing not a platform, judge warns

...all of the failures in Ontario get the media attention while the following is just a filler

B.C. First Nation buys ownership stake in Enbridge pipeline

The Vagaries Of Special Status...

...it is verboten for the "white man" to be critical of the actions of his "red brothers" so their actions are overlooked when it comes to outright fraud and theft.

Follow the money to Attawapiskat

Despite gut-wrenching images of Native children in far-off Attawapiskat living in unheated sheds and tents with no electricity and no running water, the tragic situation is largely self-inflicted.

Little hope in Attawapiskat
Christie Blatchford:

I hope they didn’t get used to the parade of media and politicians up there in poor old Attawapiskat, the remote native community on James Bay that has been so much in the news the last while

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence: Help the First Nations move forward

I concur...

The law is for me, you and the Occupy movement
Christie Blatchford: I haven’t been to St. James Park, nor am I much invested in the seemingly endless discussion of who the occupiers really are or what it is they really want. Truth be told, I don’t actually care

...and if it wasn't for the "Caledonization" of our police services this whole thing would be a huge, but expensive, comedy.

Finally...Christie Is Back And Shining The Light of Reality,,,

Law counts, cause doesn’t in Occupy movement

Christie Blatchford Nov 19, 2011 – 10:00 AM ET I haven’t written yet about the Occupy movement, in large measure because Occupy Toronto began about the time I personally started to occupy Kingston to cover the honour-killing trial.
There is an Occupy Kingston, but it consists of one large tent and some clever signs (Mal-Wart is my favourite) on the downtown waterfront.
Read More »

Two Questions...

* where do the "clients" get their illegal drugs?
* how do they "earn" the money to buy the illegal drugs?

With addicts, nothing works perfectly, but every little bit helps

Christie Blatchford: I hail from a long line of addicts, so it’s unsurprising that in the judgment about the controversial safe-injection clinic Insite, what grabbed me were the case’s two individual claimants

Injection sites for shooting up on illegal substances okay BUT:

Metro Vancouver board appears poised to ban smoking in its parks

Vancouver's Public Policies: An Absolute Disgrace!


Much about my hometown of Vancouver I love. But there's also a whole lot to be embarrassed about. Vancouver Courier columnist, Mark Hasiuk, succinctly outlines some of the most egregious recent examples, including giving out crack pipes to children.

Update: The parasites have won a victory. They must be so incredibly proud of themselves to be instrumental in continuing the destruction & exploitation of the lives of the downtrodden. -- h/t TJ & The Phantom

Posted by Robert at 12:08 PM
Comments (53)

McGuinty Raises NEW Ontario Flag...

FOR SALE

Caledonia, the issue that dare not speak its name

Christie Blatchford: An issue which for years obsessed Ontario’s Liberal government and to some degree also its Conservative Opposition — and which remains unresolved — has utterly dropped off the political and public radar

Man convicted of attacking builder during Caledonia land dispute

National Post editorial board: The shame of Caledonia continues

SEX OFFENDERS!

...we hear the word and our preconceived opinion kicks in but Christie Blatchford just might make you deal with the individual situation.

Not all sex offenders offend me

Christie Blatchford Sep 17, 2011 – 10:26 AM ET

Tough on crime, soft on criminals: This is I think the best description of where I stand on such matters, and even I’m not sure it makes any sense or has any internal logic.

Read More »

A Real Day Of Mourning...

Hard to reconcile Ground Zero with memories of 9/11


Christie Blatchford: For some, the story of 9/11 never got old, and is not now dug up as an artifact from the recesses of memory just in time for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks

NO! NO! NO...

...are people that niave that they don't think there weren't discussions between Layton and the NDP organization about making some political points from a sad but inevitable event.

Was Christie Blatchford unfair to skewer the Layton ‘canonization’?

118 Comments

De mortuis nil nisi bonum. This Latin phrase, meaning “Say nothing but good about the dead,” broadly sums up scores of letters that came in this week. Specifically, these notes critiqued Christie Blatchford’s Tuesday column about Jack Layton, titled, “It’s fitting his death is a public spectacle.”

Unlike other columnists, Ms. Blatchford didn’t allow the emotional impact of the NDP leader’s death to cloud her image of the letter he was credited as writing on his deathbed. In her words, “it’s remarkable because it shows what a canny, relentless, thoroughly ambitious fellow Mr. Layton was … the letter is full of sophistry … [it] is vainglorious too.”

This assessment brought in hundreds of angry notes, either as comments on fullcomment.com (the blog of the National Post comment pages) or to the Letters mailbox. Many of these notes evidently were written from the heart.

“I know Christie Blatchford’s job is to criticize and create controversy,” wrote Sharon Griffin. “But couldn’t she have taken at least one day off, out of respect? Read More »

Reality!
Brian Topp admits he's considering a leadership run to succeed Layton
Diebel Analysis: Will Olivia run for the top NDP job?
NDP leadership race effectively starts now
NDP already picking up where Layton left off — McDonough

CancerAids! Bringing Brevity To The Spoken/Oral Word...

Christie Blatchford: Testing the limits of civil discourse

141 Comments

“Ahhhh,” my friend Mary said cheerily early one morning this week around the kitchen table where a bunch of us have coffee before our run, “CancerAids.”
I’d been telling the group about the deluge of ghastly email I’ve been receiving about a recent column, and was in mid-description of same when Mary interrupted.
“CancerAids?” the rest of us chorused. Read More »

You Have To Wonder Why Mother Nature Is Not Mourning?

So far "she" has sent down two deluges of rain to wash away people's messages of mourning...

John Moore: Why people are mourning Jack Layton

Blatchford is right that our society overflows with false sentimentality. But she missed that, this time, it’s not false.

Jack Layton’s death has precipitated an outpouring amongst Canadians. In Toronto, the public square in front of city hall where he served as a councillor has been blanketed in a rainbow of chalk-written tributes. People who never met the man have wept. They will likely turn mourners away at his laying in state.
For some this is all a little overwrought. Ground zero for that perspective would be my friend Christie Blatchford’s column in Tuesday’s National Post. Christie’s greatest skill is her ability to not only take the public pulse but to interpret it. She’s one of the few print columnists who can prompt you to say “Exactly!” out loud while you read her. But her column on the keening accompanying Jack Layton to his final rest has provoked a ferocious pushback. True, the column was “liked” on Facebook by thousands but it has also drawn a record number of flaming online comments and countless emails to Christie, many she tells me opening with the salutation “Dear C–t.” Read More »

Spectacle Is An Apt Comment...

...but let's revisit his loss in a couple of months after parliament resumes and his legacy is exposed to the reality of being the "official opposition."

Layton’s death turns into a thoroughly public spectacle


Christie Blatchford: Reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name were proudly calling him 'Jack'

Weren't Guns Banned By Comrade Miller And His Band Of Clowns?

Victim a poster boy for Toronto gun violence
Christie Blatchford: His was one of the cases featured in a 2004 newspaper story about gun violence in the city. The story highlighted examples where people were convicted of serious and weapons offences, but received light sentences
Christie Blatchford: Another bullet in the reputation of Toronto’s Caribbean festival

It appears likely that two innocent bystanders shot along Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival parade route on Saturday, one of whom remains in hospital in critical but stable condition, were struck by Toronto Police bullets.
But the 30-year-old man shot and killed by two officers who frantically shouted at him to put down his gun allegedly had been robbing onlookers in the crowd and was so well-known to police that he was on a list of wanted men given to undercover officers working the parade route.
With information from various sources, Postmedia has put together a partial picture of the chaos that unfolded on Lake Shore Boulevard West shortly after the parade with its costumed dancers and steel bands had passed by, with thousands of revellers still on the wide street. Read More »
Complaint filed against Ontario judge who tossed guilty pleas