Now That The Hysteria Has Diminished...

Paul Russell: WikiLeaks fail to impress, but medical bribes anger readers

Juicy WikiLeaks revelations dominated the news all week. Most letter writers, however, seemed unimpressed by what they learned.
“John F. Kennedy famously said he learned nothing from the CIA he had not already read in The New York Times,” wrote Raymond Heard. “The WikiLeaks disclosures suggest that nothing has changed in the last half century. All they show us is that diplomats still reflect to their superiors in Foggy Bottom what we already know from the media: Pakistan and North Korea are increasingly dangerous failed nuclear states. Duh! The Sunni Arab monarchs want to take out Iran before it starts lobbing nukes into their gilded men’s rooms. Duh! Prince Andrew is a mountebank — and (stop the presses!) the CBC churns out anti-American dreck. Double Duh!”

“The left wing media is much more hypocritical than the right wing,” stated Stefan Santamaria. Read More »

Trick Or Trick...

Moore Makes Some Valid Points But:

How soon we forget 
 
Moore: You're shivering in the sharp cold of a winter's night outside of the hottest club in town. You try your hardest to attract the attention of the doorman. You smile and say clever things to your friends in a raised voice to look more deserving than.. MORE...

...looking back how many of the IN PLACES still enjoy their shortlived notoriety .

Another Insight Into The Human Race...

'Street meet' offers a window on Toronto

 

Window On Toronto, a new play told through the eyes of a street vendor, opens Aug. 20.

16 August 2010 07:00

Hunger pangs for street meat can hit at any time.
Post-bar, pre-game, lunch and snack time.
Those folks working the stands see a cross-section of Toronto’s citizens like no other food service workers in the city. Their sights, sounds and smells are as much a part of this city’s streetscape as the bustle of pedestrians and the busker’s song.
A new play opening this week aims to capture their unique perspective by exploring Toronto and its diverse people through the eyes of a hot dog vendor. Call it street meet.
Window On Toronto opens Friday at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts as part of the Soulpepper Theatre Company’s Lab Series.
Nine actors play more than 150 different characters in the fast-paced play, which runs less than an hour.

Lighter Side Of The News...

Justin Bieber flees on Segway scooter

Michael Jackson estate facing love child claims from Diana Ross's niece


Lindsay Lohan requests ice cream in jail as other prisoners complain about favouritism

Telus says Shaw deliberately blocks customers from switching cable tv services
Putting customers on hold for an hour tends to drive them away. As does dragging out a simple request for more than two weeks. Or calling back three times to confirm the answer to a simple “yes or no”question.

Some Good Advice From Nease...

 

...thieves don't take vacations but Steve does. Enjoy!

Putting World Reality Into Perspective...

Humping Jack Trashed
Rolling Stone Keith Richards exposes Mick Jagger in tell-all book. ROLLING Stone Keith Richards is taking an astonishing pop at Mick Jagger - in a book so savage management fear it could split the band for good.

Inside the nasty world of Mel Gibson.. by his secret lover

Paris Hilton in high spirits after wrongful arrest for pot possession at World Cup 

TO Makes World News...

Chatter: What we're hearing

By News Desk — GlobalPost Editors
Published: June 27, 2010 07:27 ET in home

To receive the morning chatter by email, let us know at editors@globalpost.com.

Need to know: Kyrgyzstan is holding a referendum on a new constitution amid fears it could inflame ethnic tensions. The proposed constitution would give parliament more power and set the stage for a general election in September.

Want to know: The NYTimes begins a series chronicling the yearlong deployment of the First Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, based in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. It will examine the battalion’s part in the surge in northern Afghanistan and the impact of war on individual soldiers and their families back home.

...and you have to love the headline:

Dull but important: Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the global economic summit in Toronto Saturday, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers. Police arrested more than 150 people.

World Vision activists dressed as "pregnant with promises" G8 leaders demonstrate ahead of the G8 and G20 summits in downtown Toronto, June 24, 2010. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

G20 preview: What to watch for in Toronto

Expect cops. Lots of them.

...Girl On The Right:

There are riots in downtown Toronto. Windows have been smashed and a police car set on fire. Not that I have any real issue with rioting…
In fact, if you are a Metallica fan and you have the video set A Year and a half in the Life of Metallica, chances are you’ve seen me, standing in front of a flipped police car, brushing my sweat-soaked hair out of my face.
However, I’m not 16 any more. And in both riot cases mentioned above - the GnR riot and the Stanley Cup Riot - I never went there with the intention of wreaking havoc. I went for entertainment purposes. Things just kind of… happened.
G20 protesters, on the other hand, come here with no other purpose than hell and destruction. My city is under siege, and I am resentful.

I don’t want Obama here in Toronto, but only because I think he’s unqualified to be president - not because I hate America. I don’t want a security fence in my downtown core, but only because I have no patience for anarchists. And I certainly don’t want my civil rights suspended just because I walk in the wrong place at the wrong time - but again, those decisions can be traced back to the anarchists.
I can’t put it any more clearly than “get the fuck out”, can I?

Posted by: Right Girl

Just because: Madonna's embrace of Jewish mysticism has transformed Israel's bohemian hub.

Wacky: Stressed-out city executives looking to get away from it all have the chance to buy their own rural village in New Zealand, complete with a pub and population of 40.

We Have Been Passing Ourselves Off As "A World Class City" So...

...we finally get a chance to prove it.

John Clark's (OCRAP) relatives come for a visit..

...and NP columnists comment;

Chris Selley’s Full Pundit: Won’t you shed a tear for Toronto?

Chris Selley  June 25, 2010 – 2:20 pm

 

The nightmare begins…

You always wanted to be in the centre of the universe, didn’t you, Toronto? Well enjoy the next few days, L. Ian McDonald says in the Sun Media papers. He does thank us Torontonians for taking on the burden, but we can’t quite shake the feeling he’s making fun of us. (Might just be that legendary inferiority complex, though.)
The G8 and G20 summits amply demonstrate Stephen Harper’s transformation from a tax-hating, China-lecturing economic libertarian into a pragmatic statesman, Susan Riley argues in the Ottawa Citizen (though he might, of course, be faking it). Climate change and Israel are the issues where he’s still ostensibly “out of step” with … well, she doesn’t say with whom he’s out of step — with Susan Riley, perhaps! But on those issues, as she says, there’s very little daylight between him and Michael Ignatieff. (Liberals pounding their fists on climate change really is an insult to the intelligence.) So the more chances Mr. Harper gets to look prime ministerial, the less chance the opposition has of unseating him. Then again, Riley says “Canadians don’t vote based on how a leader performs at these international gabfests.” So … yeah.
Read More »

Posted in: Canada, Full Comment  Tags: Canadian politics, Chris Selley, Full Pundit, G20, G8, CSIS, summits, Richard Fadden

Kelly McParland: The summit of silliness

Kelly McParland  June 25, 2010 – 10:23 am

GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images

Now, how frightening do these cops look?
Students from George Bown College take
photographs after their convocation ceremony
n downtown Toronto, as police with riot gear
patrol the streets ahead of the G20 summit.

The world has no doubt already heard more than it cares to know about the G20,  but as Day One dawns it’s difficult to ignore the epic silliness the Harper government has imposed on Toronto in the name of … well, beats the hell out of me what it’s in the name of.
As Don Martin ably describes — from the deck of the city’s biggest tourist attraction, which of course will be closed — $1 billion in security precautions buys you a post-apocalyptic city emptied of all normal life, where hordes of cops earning triple time wander around trying not to look bored. Read More »

Posted in: Canada, Full Comment, World Politics  Tags: Stephen Harper, Kelly McParland, G20 summit, Maude Barlow, national security

A Mess In Burlington...

Marianne Meed Ward blows whistle on Burlington waterfront pier

Burlington, Ontario resident, journalist and community organizer, Marianne Meed Ward, has dug into the story behind the mess that we have on our waterfront, which was supposed to be a $7.1-million pier. The original idea was that the pier would be an attractive addition to our waterfront, but what we have ended up with is a $9.4-million eyesore in the form of an unfinished mess. Sounds to me ...

Russ Campbell | more | Comments | posted 14 hours ago

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Micheal's List Of MUST Make Movies...

Phooey to Hollywood  
Coren: Movies coming out of Tinseltown are all style, no substance. To criticize last weekend’s Academy Awards ceremony would be like shooting overdressed and overpaid ducks in a Hollywood barrel. But one particular moment has to stand out.  MORE...

I Don't Buy Conflict Diamonds...

...because I can't afford them but now I have to ensure I am not breaking the law when I buy that patio chair at WalMart?

Burma: Is that conflict timber on your patio?

By Patrick Winn - Thailand