Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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11:19 PM
The WHO may lift the Toronto travel ban that was controversially imposed last week:

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told CBC television that the organization would review Canada's handling of the flu-like virus on Tuesday and make a decision on lifting the order that was to last three weeks.

"There is a chance the advisory could be changed," Thompson told CBC.

In the meantime, more cancellations of events in Toronto, including concerts by Elton John and Billy Joel and, much to the dismay of Jon, Michelle Branch.

In the meantime, Josh Freed once again manages to find just the right words for this whole thing:

Incredibly, Toronto the Safe has just been declared one of the most dangerous places on Earth by the World Health Organization (that's WHO: not WHOM). And while I think the international alarm is unfair and overdone, it has had an effect on me.

This is the first time in my life a trip to T.O. actually feels exciting.

Hogtown has always been the place Quebecers have gone to feel safe from sovereignty, speeding and second-hand smoke. But suddenly it's a ride on the wild side, and I don't know quite how to react.

I'd say react just like everyone else: shrug and go about your daily life. That's what the people in Toronto are doing.

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4:35 PM
Michael Moore must be disappointed that Charlton Heston won't be around to make fun of anymore. He's retiring as the president of the National Rifle Association, thanks to the progression of Alzheimer's Disease.

Moore may be an idiot, but that doesn't make the NRA heroes. Far from it. This powerful lobby group has far too much influence in the U.S. government, pressing its "lofty" agenda:

Heston became NRA president in 1998 as the gun-rights group was overcoming a period of internal strife and facing run-ins with the administration of President Clinton. During his tenure, the NRA raised its membership to 4 million members. The group helped send a supportive President Bush to the White House and Republicans take control of Congress.

The NRA also pushed the U.S. House to pass legislation limiting lawsuits seeking damages against gun manufacturers and distributors this year and is gearing up to try and make sure a ban on assault weapons lapses next year in Congress.

Why anyone would need an assault rifle for any remotely legal purpose is beyond me.

The NRA spends billions of dollars a year to ensure that the right to bear arms is expanded at all costs. Sadly, these costs are much higher than monetary. The cost is in the scores of human lives lost each year thanks to the NRA's radical agenda. I mean, when will people get it?

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10:32 AM
SARS panic is spreading - sometimes in absurd ways. Now the British Government is warning against travel to Toronto and today's Gazette had a story (no link) that tells about how children who've visited Canada have had to go into quarantine before being allowed back to school in London, England. In one case, two teenagers were not allowed back to school after their ski vacation to Whistler, BC, but, the article says, they managed to talk their way back into class - probably after showing someone a map.

Closer to home, the band Styx cancelled a show (for the second time) scheduled for Montreal because of SARS fears in Toronto, much to the derision of disappointed fans. The morning show on CHOM spent a while making fun of the band and their management.

All of this despite the fact that there haven't been any reported cases of SARS from people who were not in direct contact with an infected person.

Is all of this scary? Sure it is. But people are going way overboard. This is getting ridiculous.

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10:05 AM
A jury apparently believed Jaggi Singh's and his codefendants' versions of the facts, because they acquitted the three activists of charges of participating in a riot:

"I had to believe we had a jury that could make a statement that it's totally illegal and unacceptable to criminalize these people for democratically expressing their points of view," Lescarbeau said later in an interview.

"Now, I believe we still live in a democratic society."

If you ask me, this is the worst possible news for Singh. Now, whenever he charges that the system is corrupt, he'll have to explain why he was given the democratic right to trial, and subsequently acquitted. If Canada was really the police state he constantly tries to make it out to be, his propaganda would play much better from a jail cell, wouldn't it?

From this courtroom, Singh goes straight into preparation for his next trial, in Quebec City on charges of rioting at the 2001 Summit of the Americas, where I suspect we'll be hearing more of the same defense.

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8:59 AM
There was another suicide bombing in Israel today.

The terrorist was trying to board a commuter train in Kfar Saba, a town outside Tel Aviv. The hero of the story is a security guard, Alexander Kostiyuk, 23, of Bat Yam. So far the only reported casualty, Kostiyuk was apparently suspicious of the bomber, and detained the him by asking for his papers, essentially acting as a human shield when the bomber then detonated his explosive on the platform:

"This is a true hero who prevented a huge disaster," Sharon district police chief Amichai Shai told The Jerusalem Post in an interview after the attack.

At least 14 other people were injured.

The timing of this attack is just further evidence that the Palestinian terror factions will never allow progress to be made towards a peace agreement. It comes only a day after an agreement between Arafat and Abu Mazan, the newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister, allowed for a cabinet to be named. Although this is a farce of democracy, foreign powers including Britain and, to some extent, the United States, seem ready to view these changes as steps towards the infamous "road map", and are preparing for a new drive towards a peace agreemement.

And of course, every time someone decides - mainly as a political move - to begin pushing for peace in the middle east, terrorism increases. The problem is that these groups will never accept peace under any circumstances, so they will continue to carry out terror attacks - the one thing sure to derail any peace process - in order to prevent negotiations from moving forward.

In the meantime, people keep dying.

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1:49 PM
As most observers predicted, appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazan has very little real power. His original cabinet list angered Yasser Arafat, so he was almost forced to resign before the two could come to an agreement about a new list.

Palestinian prime minister-designate, Mahmoud Abbas, ended his bitter standoff with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat over the formation of a new Cabinet on Wednesday: Abbas will double as interior minister, and Mahmoud Dahlan will serve as state minister for security affairs, according to Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath.

[ . . . ]

Arafat had challenged several Abbas appointments, particularly that of former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan to a key security post. However, at the root of the conflict appeared to have been the Palestinian leader's reluctance to share power with Abbas, who has the backing of international Mideast mediators.

[ . . . ]

By law, Abbas has the sole authority to form the Cabinet, but in practice needs Arafat's blessing. The ruling Fatah party, which sided with Arafat in the showdown, commands a solid majority in parliament, and it remained unclear whether Abbas' Cabinet would win approval.

There's no denying that both Arafat and Abbas are corrupt. So it frequently baffles me how international observers are watching this debacle with signs of hope. This is not real democracy, where one leader gets to veto everything that other officials do, and that these officials are appointed, not elected. Why people are going around calling it democratic reform is beyond me.

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10:39 AM
Speaking of Concordia, the left's favourite punching bag is of course Rector Frederick Lowy. He's such an easy target for them because he's openly Zionist - therefore he must be evil, of course (insert sarcasm here). See if you can trace this logic:

The Canadian Jewish News attributed some comments to Lowy, which alleged that the administration was going to ask the government to de-certify the CSU. This turned out to be erroneous but a coalition of "pro-Palestinian students and community activists" decided to take one of Lowy's remarks out of context as an excuse to accuse him of their favourite charge: racism.

So by their logic, now all the students charged by the university in connection with the September 9th riots should have their charges lifted. Never mind that the sentences were handed down by a student panel, not by Lowy himself. Never mind that Lowy never actually said anything wrong - his words were twisted, that's all. And never mind that the people charged in connection with the riot were actually guilty. Apparently, none of that matters:

Mouammar, a spokesperson for a coalition of pro-Palestinian students and community activists, is calling on the university to throw out internal complaints against students stemming from September's protests against former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She said Arab students in the protest were punished more harshly than non-Arabs.

More unsubstantiated charges of racism. That's their favourite tactic, it seems. When in doubt, find a Zionist to accuse of racism. It helps if he's also a white male and a capitalist, preferably in a position of power. Never fails, right?

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10:26 AM
Montreal's favourite whining activist poster-boy, Jaggi Singh, is still dancing the "I'm innocent" speech in front of a jury. Charged with participating in a riot outside the G20 summit in 2000, Singh has been defending himself, levelling the usual leftist allegations of police bias and brutality, a corrupt system, and the old standby, "it's not fair!":

Singh, who is representing himself, suggested he was "No. 1" on a list of 12 photos being circulated by police in part because he was critical of police actions at earlier anti-globalization protests.

Or perhaps it was because he'd participated in and instigated riots before? Nah! Couldn't be! The police - which everyone knows are just tools of capitalist oppression - must have been out to get him (and his co-defendents).

Anyone notice how at every single one of these so-called "protests" that wind up turning into riots, everyone who is arrested claims police corruption and brutality? Or that they all maintain charges should be dropped against them simply because everyone else wasn't arrested, too?

If this is sounding an awful lot like the Concordia riots, well, surprise, surprise, many of the same people - including Jaggi Singh - were at that one too. And of course, he was the first to claim police brutality when arrested for ignoring a court-order on a rabble-rousing trip to Israel. Arrests - and counter-charges of police brutality - seem to follow this guy around like glue. But I suppose it's all coincidence, right? Or maybe just an oppressive capitalist ploy.

After all, how dare anyone criminalize rioting?

Singh's case is due to go to the jury for deliberation today. It remains to be seen whether they buy into the tapdance. The smart money says they probably will.

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7:44 PM
With the Habs not having made the playoffs, it's hard to get too excited about hockey at this point. But the Leafs scored in overtime last night to hang on for game 7 against the Flyers. And the Canucks are hoping for a game 7 win tonight as well. With Ottawa having eliminated the Islanders in 5, that's good news for the teams from the country that invented the sport . . . even if the Habs are golfing.

Update: The Leafs were pummelled 6-1 by Philadelphia, so they'll soon be joining the Habs on the golf course. But Vancouver did advance. And in yet another playoff upset, underdog Minnesota eliminated the team everyone loves to hate, the Colorado Avalanche, in the third game 7 series being played last night.

It's anyone's cup now.

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7:35 PM
Sometimes, The Onion seems almost impossibly funny:

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1:50 PM
Blogging has been light lately, as you might have noticed, due to the craziness of the holidays and other craziness at work. Things should return to normal soon.

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11:49 AM
With Saddam out of Iraq, now Syria is getting fidgety and appears to be taking US threats more seriously:

"We welcome the statement of President Bush and hope that this statement marks the beginning of a serious and constructive dialogue," Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Monday. "We in Syria do not like argument ... we are for dialogue."

On Sunday, Bush said Damascus was "getting the message" that it should deny sanctuary to fleeing members of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government, one of the issues that fueled tensions between Syria and the United States in recent weeks.

LGF had a very fitting cartoon by Cox & Forkum the other day on the subject. Now that the US has proven it is willing to back up words with actions, other countries are sitting up and taking notice.

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11:34 AM
Happy Easter to all those out there who are celebrating!

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11:33 AM
This SARS thing is getting way out of control. So far, 14 Canadians have died and scores of others have been infected, including now a batch of hospital workers who were taking precautions:

SARS has killed a 14th Canadian and infected a new cluster of Toronto hospital workers even though they were protected from head-to-toe in gowns, gloves, masks and eye shields.

[ . . . ]

"We were using what both Health Canada and the (Atlanta-based) Centers for Disease Control consider to be maximal precautions for these patients," she said, adding it's possible some potentially infected staff was not present at the intubations.

That raises serious questions about how the virus was spread and whether the current precautions are enough to protect health care workers.

The medical community has called for Canada to spend the $100 million necessary to research and develop a vaccine against SARS, without delay:

"I would say it would be (Prime Minister Jean) Chretien's best legacy if he would ante up the development money that may be needed for that," Patrick said, adding that top medical officials across the country were issuing the same appeal.

According to news reports, voices of the federal opposition, as well as Ontario premier Ernie Eves, have joined in the call. But apparently, the government is dragging its heels at approving the money.

And that really makes me wonder about our priorities. I mean, what are our tax dollars for, if not for cases like these?

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