daryldean.com

I can’t believe how much of a dustup has ensued from the following - seemingly inocuous - quotation:

“For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” (CNN)

Regardless of your political affiliation, I don’t see how you could take this to mean that Mrs. Obama was ever anything but a proud American.

Did anyone on the right stop to consider what might actually be going through her mind?  And what it means?

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Yesterday a reprehensible piece of legislation was introduced in the Canadian House of Commons that stands to make millions of otherwise law-abiding Canadians criminals. It also stands to expose those same millions to lawsuits that could ruin lives, careers and families for the simple crime of shifting songs from a lawfully purchased CD to a lawfully purchased iPod or other device or storage format.  Welcome to the 21st Century, bitches.

The Federal Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, says “This bill reflects a win-win approach.”

Just who will be doing all the winning with this is pretty clear. And it’s not me and you.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/06/12/tech-copyright.html

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From CBC:  http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/12/taser-report.html

Okay, now it’s all gone too far.  I call shenanigans on this sorry damn excuse of a Federal Government, and I especially call out Stockwell “Doris” Day for delaying a report so that he might put some of his own spin on it before it gets released.

I don’t think there could be one single, solitary, non-bullshit reason given by any sane person to justify delaying such an anticipated report for any period of time at all…let alone for SIX DAYS.

Obviously, there’s something in there that very much concerns our Mr. Day.

I call upon anyone in possession of a copy of this report to leak it to the media immediately.  Do your own conscience a favour and do your country a service by releasing this report before Doris puts his stamp on it.  Please.

Western law is entirely based on the premise that you may do whatever you wish, as long as it hurts no one else.

For all the volumes of laws and charters and everything else we have that defines what we are and are not allowed to do, that basic tenet rings true.

I love Canada. We don’t have the economic or industrial power of many countries, and we certainly don’t have the largest population or even the largest land mass. Canada doesn’t come first on very many lists of any consequence…though I’m not sure how many of those lists would be written by Canadians. (more…)

Dear Hillary,

I’d just like to thank you for running such a good campaign for the Democratic Nomination, at least up until a while back when you started talking about white people liking you more and blowing Iran off the map. Not that I necessarily disagree that there will come a time when Iran needs the rubber-hose treatment, but this isn’t the sort of thing a potential President should be saying.

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Nobody seems to be saying this outright yet, so I’ll say it for all of us that are thinking it:

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So the USA is up to $1.6 TRILLION dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And that’s just the dollars that have been spent, to say nothing of the human toll that these wars have exacted - on all sides. And though we may mourn more deeply for those we have lost to this fight, we cannot forget the innocent lives that have needlessly been lost.

The object of fighting any War is to gain security. In this regard, I did and still do believe that we have done the right thing in Afghanistan. The right thing is not always the easy thing, but to deprive Al-Qaeda of their Taliban protectors and to attempt to return Afghanistan to the community of nations is a noble effort. We harbour no doubts that Afghanistan was the staging ground for numerous attacks, including those of September 11, 2001.

I also believe that the USA had to hit back after those attacks. To sit idle or to engage in protracted diplomacy would have sent the wrong message to those who would wish harm to the USA and its allies.

But Iraq, well, that’s an entirely different kettle of fish.
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Recently there was a study released that 55% of Canadians want to keep the penny. Well, as one of that other 45%, I intend to vote with my pocket - my considerably lighter pocket - by not taking pennies any more.

That’s right. When I pay with cash, if my change is $1.59, I won’t take the four or nine pennies that will be foisted upon me.

It’s not like the “Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny” tray you see in a lot of places, where you take your pennies and toss them in there. No, this is a more powerful statement than that, it’s “I say No to Pennies.”

So, say no to pennies. You can have a whole pocket full of the things and still not be able to buy a stick of gum, so let’s just ditch the things and move on with our lives. The more of us that don’t want pennies, the less pennies will be needed, and the less it will cost us all anyway.

So, not only was the famous SIM card not in the truck that crashed into Glasgow Airport - as had been asserted by the Australian Federal Police - but the person found in possession of it (Sabeel Ahmed) has not been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation. He’s been charged with withholding information, but I sense that might be a tough case to make.

Either way, how can Mohamed Haneef be charged with the support of a terrorist organisation if he plainly did not do that? There’s no linkage here, and this case is getting weaker by the second.

On the one hand you’ve got a seemingly innocent young doctor that just wanted to go and visit his family, and on the other you have a government (and seemingly also a police service) that is absolutely hell-bent on getting someone for something, damnit!

I mean, the man even tried to telephone an investigator in the UK FOUR TIMES. Four times! Does that sound like a guy that wants to run away? Not to me, it doesn’t.

Even if Dr. Haneef’s visa were now reinstated, I doubt he’d want to stay in Australia. But it should be reinstated so he at least can get out on bail while this circus winds itself up. And, further to that, I believe that the Australian Government owes this man an apology. If he’s a terrorist, let’s see the evidence. But I don’t think giving a soon-to-expire SIM card to a family member should be an offence in any legal system.

And don’t even get me started on Ruddock announcing he was going to review the conditions of bail for terrorist suspects. How can you call yourself a free country when you can lock people up - indefinitely - for nothing? (Oh, wait, I guess you could call yourself the USA.)

Set the man free.

This article represents my personal opinions. It is also hosted on a web server in the United States of America, and is thus protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as Free Speech.

So, the Indian-born and trained Muslim Doctor Mohammed Haneef has not only been charged with the offence of supporting terrorism, but he has also been summarily stripped of his Australian Visa and taken into Immigration Detention.

Update: It seems the news reports that Dr. Haneef was in immigration detention were incorrect. He’s still in jail in Queensland because he hasn’t posted bail yet. His lawyer thinks he might avoid detention by not posting bail (to trump the trump, as it were) so we’ll just have to see how this shakes out.

And all this over a SIM card that he left with his cousins in Britain when he came to work in Australia.

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