Great Christmas photos

From AP and Reuters:


choristers proceed from the nearby King's College School to the chapel at King's College, Cambridge, to take part in final rehearsals for the annual Christmas Eve Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.


a Christmas party at the Small World school in Amman


the traditional Christmas bath in Monaco December 19


Shoppers at Baclaran market in Paranaque city, metro Manila December 18, 2010. The Philippines, the largest Roman Catholic state in Asia, observes one of the longest Christmas holidays in the world, beginning with dawn masses on December 16 to the feast of the Three Kings in January


a portion of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, ... The writing on the wall reads 'Merry Christmas world from Bethlehem ghetto'

Not an impressive debut

The first thing newly-minted Conservative Senator Larry Smith does is complain about the pay?
Nobody forced you to say yes, sir.
What an insult to Canada this appointment is.

"Stop crying and fight your father"

Photo of the year

Photo: Jim Tiller / Daytona Beach News-Journal

Questions about G20 remain

Gratifying news today that finally a Toronto police officer is being charged with a G20 assault. But Joe Warmington asks the follow-up questions:

What is still unknown is who made the decision to create the climate that resulted in this occurring in the designated protest area at Queen’s Park — the home base of the premier, democracy and free speech? Also, who told police officers to run away, and turn away, from real criminal activity on the Saturday and who flicked the switch to inflict repugnant pay back against mainly innocent people Sunday?
And where is Chief Blair?

Stormy weather

When I read stories like this and this, I'm glad I live in Saskatchewan, where it is mostly just cold.

Declare victory and leave

Booman would be happy if Obama could just declare victory and leave Afghanistan:

If we try to stay there forever, we will lose. Anyone who thinks the best use of our troops is in Afghanistan has been smoking too much hashish. Any honest, sentient human being knows this.

Courage

Amazing stories of resourcefulness and determination from the hundreds of people stranded on that Ontario highway, as well as from the courageous police and military rescuers who searched so diligently to make sure everyone was safe.

Rant of the day

Montreal Gazette sportswriter Jack Todd on Canada's loudmouthed lout, Don Cherry:

. . . the man has morphed into Glenn Beck in sequins, out to prove that he who shouts loudest is always right. It's always the same thing: the rage, the name-calling, the complete absence of reason.
Every time I see a Tea Party rally or listen to Cherry rant, I wonder: Why are these people so angry? What are they so mad about? All these rich, fat, angry white men and rich, thin, angry white women, what is their problem?
They aren't begging on the street in Delhi, or working a mine in the Congo, or taking a bus and two subway trains to spend the night cleaning an office in Toronto before taking two subway trains and a bus to get home. Yet to hear the right-wing elite tell it, one of the great outrages in history is that the government actually wants them to pay taxes on the millions or tens of millions they earn. Imagine, the scandal of it all.

H/T Rev Paperboy

Canadian Wheat Board elections

The Canadian Wheat Board elections are over and the single-desk supporters remain in control.
Somewhere, Gerry Ritz is weeping.

For everyone travelling this holiday season

G20 land

I call bullsh**t on Ontario premier Dalton McGinty and Toronto police chief Bill Blair.
They're all coy and stuff now about how they just didn't realize what the secret G20 law really meant and how they didn't really intend to abuse anyone. And they just can't quite remember now why they didn't explain it at the time.
Liars.
They know quite well why they passed that law, and how they intended to use it.
Toronto police wanted to create G20 land, where they could arrest anyone, anywhere, anytime, for no reason at all.
And the Ontario government gave it to them.

Thanks but no thanks

Cariboo Barbie is planning on going to Haiti.
Don't they have enough problems already?

The horror! The horror!

You know, if Sun TV ever gets onto the air, they'll probably give Don Cherry a show.

"the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history"

Well, its about time.
Ontario ombudsman Andre Martin describes the G20 arrests as "the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history". Joe Warmington says Toronto police chief Bill Blair should resign.

...because of this phony secret law that was “likely unconstitutional,” people were beaten, punched, arrested, detained, strip searched, humiliated and shot at with rubber bullets, tear gas or pepper spray. History will show the real criminals got away. And then police turned on their own citizens....
It is a disgrace that before Marin’s report, not one public official questioned any of this obscene abuse of policing privilege by people who are employed by us to uphold the law.